Dr. Katharine MacDonald (Faculty of Archaeology) sketches the background to a recent paper in Science Advances, co-authored by her and other members of the Liveable Planet team.

How to get involved in sustainability? Read more about four projects that Leiden University helped realise in the past few years.

Professor Jan Willem Erisman is happy with the freedom at our University. But frameworks are needed, he believes. That is why he makes a proposal for such a framework from the perspective of his own profession. In fact, he makes a proposal for a wonderful ambition for Leiden University.

Conservation of biodiversity is one of the main challenges today. A higher degree of biodiversity results in ecosystems that can withstand adverse conditions and better provide essential ecosystem services. This is the case for both agricultural and natural systems.

The world we live in is changing in many aspects at an ever-increasing speed. And it will continue to do so. How do we anticipate these changes, such as the increase in atmospheric CO2, the extinction of species and industrialisation?

Many students are finishing their master thesis on sustainability this summer. In this blog, we reflect on their topics, approaches, and goals by highlighting theses from Governance of Sustainability, European Law, Global Archaeology, Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Ecology, and Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.

Research into the evolutionary backgrounds of our diets can help us make the right choices in diet, health and lifestyle.

79 students, 15 organisations, and 16 projects: within the master’s programme Governance of Sustainability, diverse groups of students worked together with organisations to tackle sustainability challenges. In this blog, Annemiek de Looze reflects on how the power of their transdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving was the key to a successful, interesting, fun semester.

Agricultural production is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change around the world, and poorer countries face significantly more difficulties than the developed world. Coffee is an agricultural commodity that most people enjoy but are oblivious to the climate-related challenges affecting coffee farmers. Among the many challenges affecting coffee production is the price volatility, prevalence of fungal diseases, and migration of younger generations from rural to urban regions. In such a complex setup, how can their quality of life and ecosystems and our favorite cup of coffee be guaranteed in the future? And, how can we as scientists contribute to ensuring the sustainability and resilience of coffee producers?