With her exciting research into criminal truth finding in Europe, Linda Geven won this year’s Gratama Science Prize for young talented scientists. As the winner of the prize, Geven received the sum of €20,000 to use for her research. The jury believed that Geven belongs to ‘a new generation of legal psychologists, who are making a new indispensable contribution to enhancing criminal truth finding.’

The winner of the Leiden University Thesis Prize has made an original and substantial contribution to argumentation theory. This is what Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board and member of the LUF board, said at the online ceremony for the University’s thesis prizes. The winner of the first prize is Charlotte van der Voort. She received her Master’s degree in Dutch Discourse Studies with the summa cum laude distinction.

On Tuesday 20 November, Lilian Visscher, acting Director of Leiden University Fund (LUF) and Rector magnificus Carel Stolker, LUF Board member, met with with representatives of the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation to officially establish a new matching fund called the ‘Leiden University Fund - Lutfia Rabbani Foundation Scholarship’.

On 14 January 2019, Shermarke Hassan boarded a plane to Milan. This young PhD candidate was going to spend the next three months doing research at the ‘Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Centre,’ one of the world’s biggest research and treatment centres for haemophilia, a rare condition that affects the blood’s ability to clot.

The LUF International Study Fund (LISF) will make changes to its allocation process following an investigation into diversity in its grants policy. This investigation, which was carried out for the LISF by, among others, former committee member Mariska Kret and master’s student Marjolijn Wijnen, has shown that female students who submit an application are slightly less likely to be awarded an LISF grant than men.

Why do innocent people sometimes spend years in prison? EUREX is a registry of miscarriages of justice in Europe that ultimately led to exonerations. The aim is to prevent such mistakes being made in future. One of the initiators is Leiden legal psychologist Linda Geven.

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.

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.

The Committee for Academic Expenditure (CWB) of the Leiden University Fund (LUF) awards grants for research and teaching projects, ranging from € 2,600 tot € 35,000.