This year, the Leiden University Fund received over 90 applications in its annual grant round for research and teaching projects. Behind each proposal is a unique story. We spoke to three researchers whose applications were successful and who can now put their plans into action.
How do you protect the heart after a heart attack and support its recovery? This is what Anke Smits, a cardiovascular cell biologist at the LUMC, is working on. With support from the Leiden University Fund, she is developing an innovative ‘heart plaster’: a biomaterial that is applied to a damaged heart to limit scarring, stimulate natural repair and temporarily support the vulnerable tissue.
The figures are stark: each year, more than 500,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The most common and aggressive form, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), has a five-year survival rate of less than 10 per cent. LUMC researcher Marieke IJsselsteijn has developed a new method that allows her to study these tumours in unprecedented detail.
The Leiden University Fund (LUF) has spent the past year working on a special partnership centred on an ambitious project in the Dutch Caribbean. Together with the Kinderpostzegels children’s charity, CEDE ARUBA and Leiden University researchers, the LUF applied for National Postcode Lottery funding.
Science thrives on freedom, safety, and stability. But what if these prerequisites are lacking? What if academics beyond our borders are threatened, persecuted or forced to flee? For dr. Nadia Sonneveld, the driving force behind Scholars for Scholars Leiden, these are not merely theoretical questions, but a call for action.
On a sunny Saturday, 15 nominees came to the Kamerlingh Onnes building to hear who had won the Schild-de Groen Research Prizes and the Leiden University Thesis Prizes. The stunning Lorentz Hall filled with family, friends, donors and thesis supervisors.
Professor by Special Appointment Anouk Goemans has received the National Youth Care Award 2025 from the ‘Stichting Steunfonds Pro Juventute’. The cash prize of €30,000 will go towards her research on youth care and youth protection.
The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Dr Alicia Schrikker as Professor of Dutch History in the World, effective 1 January 2026. The chair is based at the Faculty of Humanities Institute of History.
Houses, warehouses, wells, a mooring and even a stable. All of this can be seen on the oldest known map of the island of Dejima acquired by Leiden University Libraries (UBL). The map provides a highly detailed picture of a tiny living environment on the isolated island.
What reduces the likelihood of children being taken into care? At present, child protection services don’t have the data to answer that question. In her inaugural lecture, Anouk Goemans calls for data-driven systems, alongside attention to the stories behind the numbers.
