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Video: positive feedback on Leiden conference on global challenges
Eighty academic papers, 270 participants and four roundtables on dealing with global challenges. The second conference of the interdisciplinary research programme Global Transformations and Governance Challenges was bold and ambitious. What did participants think of the conference? Find out in this video.
‘Nearly every research study has a governance dimension, but academics know very little about it’
The annual conference of the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) interdisciplinary research programme will take place in The Hague on 7-9 June. As a researcher at Leiden University, why should you be there? ‘Nearly every research study has a governance dimension, but academics often know very little about it’, says programme chair Jan Aart Scholte.
Liveable Planet present at LUGO Sustainability Day
Liveable Planet, the Leiden interdisciplinary research programme on sustainability, has a full presence at the LUGO Sustainability Day on Tuesday 9 May. Professor Jan Willem Erisman will deliver the keynote lecture. You can also ask questions about sustainability research and interdisciplinary collaboration at a Liveable Planet stand.
New centre of expertise makes placebo research accessible for healthcare and society
Positive expectations about treatment increase the likelihood of success. The new Center for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies Leiden is therefore promoting research on the placebo effect and offering expertise and training for care providers. At the opening, the founders demonstrated their VR communications training.
‘Nice tool but what are we supposed to do with it?’
Public agencies are keen to use new technology such as AI to speed up their primary processes. But the internal organisation is often a major stumbling block. SAILS researcher Friso Selten conducts research at the interface between data science and public administration.
How can we live healthier lives? Universities and hospitals are going to find out
Getting out and exercising rather than slobbing on the sofa, breathing in fresh air instead of cigarette smoke and grabbing healthy snacks instead of junk food. In a new interdisciplinary Medical Delta programme, researchers are going to investigate how to help people live healthier lives. What are the main research questions?
Conference on the gap between government and citizens
It’s often said that citizens have lost trust in their governments. But who exactly are these ‘citizens’? And which aspects of people’s contact with government agencies work better than others? These questions will be discussed at the Crafting Resilience conference (working language is English) on 30 March. Everyone is welcome.
Executive Board column: interdisciplinary collaboration, from suspicion to snowball effect
How is interdisciplinary collaboration faring at Leiden University? And has disciplinarity been completely abandoned? I’d like to reflect on some concerns among colleagues and on our plans for the future.
Income and ethnicity are risk factors for cardiovascular disease
Dutch people with a low income are up to 1.5 times more at risk of a heart attack or stroke than their wealthier compatriots. Among Surinamese Hindus the risk is 1.9 times higher. This is according to research by the LUMC and the HagaZiekenhuis hospital. Dutch doctors do not look at these factors.
Executive Board column: From the outside looking in (and vice versa)
We know more together than alone. To increase our university’s impact on the region, we have to be open to the world outside. This is how we strengthen our ties and create new opportunities for teaching and research.
Interdisciplinarity offers ‘golden opportunities’ but not without big changes
How should we organise interdisciplinary work within Leiden University? This was the key question at a symposium organised by the Liveable Planet interdisciplinary research programme. Radical ideas, like getting rid of the faculties, came up for discussion.
A quick call with Jan Willem Erisman about the interdisciplinary research symposium
Conducting research with academics from different disciplines is not easy. ‘But collaboration is vital to society,’ says Professor of Environmental Sustainability, Jan Willem Erisman. On behalf of Leiden’s Liveable Planet interdisciplinary programme, he is organising a symposium that will be held on 7 February on how to promote interdisciplinary research.
Adolescents experience how susceptible they are to fake news with VR glasses and rubber hands
BrainTrain: an initiative from Leiden University in which a team of students visit high schools to make adolescents more resilient against disinformation on the news and on their socials. In an interactive two-hour guest lesson, high school pupils discover how easily their brains can be tricked into thinking something is real. For example by taking part in a VR-experiment. 'Man, it felt like I was having a heart attack.'
‘If you want to resolve the big challenges in healthcare, you have to work across disciplines’
Marieke Adriaanse is Professor of Behavioural Interventions in Population Health and researches behavioural science issues in health. She advocates for better interdisciplinary collaboration and a new form of recognition and rewards within academia. ‘We have to stop being so blinkered,’ she says in her inaugural lecture.
New Leiden interdisciplinary programme: Global Transformations and Governance Challenges
Global problems such as pandemics, migration, financial crises and climate change call for global governance. That may sound obvious. ‘But we often underestimate the global nature of current challenges in society,’ says Jan Aart Scholte, brand-new Professor of Global Transformations and Governance Challenges at Leiden University.