The Joskind Fund was signed in the Academy Building on Monday 22 May. The fund focuses on food production and biodiversity. Erna Barèl and Bas Reichert, the founders of the Base Clear biotech firm, are also the founders of the fund. Both studied biology at Leiden University and wanted to remain in the discipline, but as entrepreneurs rather than academics. Experience during internships had shown them that there was a demand for expertise in DNA analysis. This was how BaseClear began.

The Leiden University Fund (LUF) Committee for Academic Expenditure (CWB) has an annual project grant round in March for teaching and research projects up to € 35,000. The resources come from the named funds of the LUF, the project grants funds of Stichting Praesidium Libertatis I and from the collaboration of the LUF with the Gratama-Stichting, Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds en Stichting Verpakking en Milieu.

Friends and family of Willemijn van Woensel are holding a golf tournament to raise money for ovarian cancer research. Willemijn died in 2021 at the age of 57 of ovarian cancer, a fatal disease that affects 1,400 women per year. Every year 1,000 women die from this silent killer.

It’s over a year ago since Russia started its war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Life has carried on for the Ukrainian students in Leiden as they try to make the best of things. Last summer, we spoke to Sofia, who started her second year on the Psychology programme last September. How is she coping?

Leiden University and Unicef have already been working together for ten years to increase and share information on children’s rights. They are extending this cooperation. Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard explains what has already been achieved and what he wants to achieve in the next five years.

‘If we all possessed just an ounce of Cleveringa, then all would be well in the world,’ said Professor Leo Lucassen. In the Cleveringa debate on the line between free speech and threatening speech he called for ‘more guts’. He is not the only one who thinks this is badly needed if the debate at the Academy Building on Wednesday evening between academics, politicians and journalists was to be believed.

The Leiden University Fund (LUF) Committee for Academic Expenditure (CWB) has an annual project grant round in March for teaching and research projects up to € 35,000. This year a second round was held in September.

In the Alumni Room at the Faculty Club on Rapenburg, a new named fund was established on 7 September 2022: the Bouwens Astrophysics Fund. This fund was established by Dr Rychard Bouwens, an associate professor at the Leiden Observatory, who wants to give young researchers the chance to develop their skills.

Since criticising the war in Ukraine, Russian author and cardiologist Maxim Osipov has fled Russia. He has won various literary prizes in Russia and his work has had a very positive reception in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. This September, he will be Leiden University’s writer in residence and teach a course on Russian literature for a year. He will receive assistance from the Leiden University Fund’s Scholars at Risk Fund.

Following his own path from a young age, taking on challenges, asking for advice and inspiring others with the insights he’d gained: that was Laurent van Vugt’s (1939-2019) path in life. In his will he left a bequest to LUF, which his wife established as a named fund: the Camino Laurent van Vugt Fund.