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.

Assistant Professor Maarten Schrama works at Leiden University’s living labs, where biology, environmental sciences and knowledge about agriculture and policy come together. We met him at the new Polderlab to ask him about his research.

Disruptions to the gut flora can affect our mental health. How could this connection be used to prevent stress-related disorders? This is what psychologist Laura Steenbergen will investigate with the aid of a project grant from the LUF and, on the basis of a partnership between the two funds, the Gratama Foundation.

In academic year 2018/2019, over 80 students set off for destinations all around the world to study, do an internship or carry out research. From the final reports that we received, ten deserved a place on the shortlist for the LISF Prize. A further five students were nominated for the Janneke Fruin-Helb Grant.

Political scientist Juan Masullo receives a grant from the Elise Mathilde Fund (Leiden University Fund) to conduct his research project ‘Forging an Anti-Mafia Culture: Observational and Experimental Evidence from Italy’. Masullo aims to find out what ordinary Italians think of organised crime and to generate insights as to how to foster an anti-mafia culture.

The third edition of the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Innovation Award was won by Anne Dirkson, former PhD student at Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). During her PhD she researched the automatic collection of patient experiences from online forums. ‘With this work, Anne has shown how the exchange of knowledge between medical professionals, patients and researchers can become a closed circle,’ said the jury.

What kind of information is actually being shared? Alongside traditional media channels such as TV and newspapers, the rise of social media has made it incredibly quick and easy to inform the public. Do we have a clear enough picture of the spread of disinformation? And what are the underlying motives of people who believe fake news?