Young Academy Leiden
Newsletter - April 2026 |
The clocks have sprung forward once again, and the days are getting longer 🌞 A perfect moment to kick off the next YAL season: the Spring of Time! Join us for a Deep Time Walk and discover the story of our planet: 4.6 billion years in the span of a single walk.
More news: our Annual Report is now online, offering an overview of our activities and highlights from 2025.
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Deep Time Walk
Experience 4.6 billion years in 3.5 hours
What if you could walk through the entire history of Earth?
The Deep Time Walk is a guided outdoor experience that translates the 4.6-billion year story of our planet into a 4.6 km walk. With 1 meter representing 1 million years, we travel from the formation of Earth to the present day. Along the way we explore key moments in the evolution of our planet and life itself: the formation of oceans, the emergence of life, mass extinctions, the rise of complex ecosystems - and the very recent arrival of humans.
Deep Time Walk This walk invites participants from all disciplines to step into deep time and reflect on questions connecting geology, biology, philosophy, climate science, and humanity’s place on Earth. Rather than a lecture, it is a shared journey and travel adventure through deep time. 
Step into Earth’s deep past and return with a new perspective on the present.
When: 26 June 2026, 14.00 - 17.30
Where: Haagse Bos, the Hague
This is a free event, sign up via the link
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Academia in Motion symposium and Town Hall meeting
Academia in motion is organising a symposium and Town Hall to share outcomes and experiences and to engage in dialogue about the progress of and future of Academia in Motion.
The full programme is now available. See here for more information and to sign up!
When: 12 May 2026; 10:00 – 16:00
Where: PLNT, Leiden |
AiM symposium highlights: YAL organised workshops
YAL will host two workshops at the Academia Symposium and Town Hall. We hope to meet some of you there!
👪 Parenting in Academia
How do you combine an academic career with parenting young children? For many early‑career researchers, this is a daily challenge: from lack of sleep and unpredictable childcare to publication pressure and implicit expectations within academia, especially during the life phase of having young children. Questions around gender inequality and career opportunities also play a role.
Academic parents and experts will share their experiences: what obstacles did they encounter, what truly helped, and what is needed to better combine parenthood with a sustainable academic career? Together, we will discuss what could change at the institutional and cultural level.
☯ Leadership
Leadership helps bridge differences between people and groups, and enables a shared understanding of both goals and the paths we take to reach them. It is closely connected to the aim of Academia in Motion: fostering a more open, collaborative and inclusive academic community.
Leadership can be demonstrated by anyone in a group. It involves building connections, working together, taking responsibility and pushing boundaries. As these leadership competencies become increasingly important in promotion policies, it is crucial to understand they mean.
What does good collaboration involve? How do you build partnerships with civil society and create a shared language? How do you bridge interdisciplinary differences and navigate different working styles? Leadership comes into play in all these questions.
In this interactive session, we will examine how leadership is manifested in our daily work, and the Leadership Team will share insights and practical tools.
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Annual Report 2025 online
Our Annual report is now online, offering an overview of our activities and highlights from 2025. Some key highlights include:
- We organised several events around our central theme: Spring of Slow Science: to encourage reflection, and thoughful collaboration across disciplines
- The general recommendations on academic promotion criteria, contributing to ongoing discussions on fair and meaningful evaluation
- the “Think Green, Act Green” manifesto, supporting concrete steps toward a more sustainable and climate-conscious academia
- Continued investment in community building, from listening sessions to a new platform connecting early career researchers. |
New Blog: Breaking the Walls between science, policy, and diplomacy
YAL members Elizabeth Buimer and Thanja Lamberts traveled to Berlin to attend the Falling Walls Science Summit 2025. In their blog they describe their experiences at the summit, reflect on how early-career researchers can stay connected across borders, defend academic freedom, build stronger relationships with society, and navigate controversy. |
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Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Science
The Dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek Foundation warmly invites you to their 100 year lustrum event. Since 1926, the Dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek Foundation has promoted the scientific advancement of women through the award of international travel grants. On 23 April 2026, we will pay tribute to the Foundation's groundbreaking namesake - Dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek - a physician and early feminist - and celebrate the achievements of the 1100+ female academics that the Foundation has supported in the past century. With thought-provoking presentations from Mineke Bosch, Judi Mesman, and Hanneke Takkenberg, and a lively panel discussion with Lidwien Poorthuis, Petra Rudolf and Cisca Wijmenga.
When: 23 April 2026; 11:00 - 18:00
Where: De zalen van zeven, Utrecht
Attending the lustrum event is free, but for catering purposes, you are asked to sign up before April 15th via the link. |
 Una Europa Opportunities for Early Career Researchers
Una Europa is currently offering two interesting opportunities.
1. Seed funding: up to €15,000 in funding for projects which build international ties within the Una Europa alliance, including a funding strand for ECR mobility and collaboration. Deadline: 30 April.
2. Data Science & AI Challenge: in Madrid (22-24 July), for PhD candidates and ECRs. Interdisciplinary! For everyone who is “passionate about creating ethical and socially responsible AI solutions for social welfare”. Deadline: 17 April. |
Higher Education Knowledge Café: Fair Educational Assessment in the Age of AI
During this session, researchers will present some of the results and insights from the FAIR‑ASSESS project and explore the opportunities and risks of GenAI‑supported assessment. They will address questions such as:
- What does fairness mean in the age of AI?
- How does GenAI influence the relationship between students and lecturers?
- And what kind of normative framework could help guide the responsible use of GenAI in assessment?
When: 17 April 2026, 15.30 - 16.45
Where: Spui Campus, the Hague
See this link for more information and sign up |
“Boeken vernielen blijkt verrassend leuk (en zo bevrijd ik kunstwerken)”
 Lieke Smits tells us how her new creative hobby helps her get away from her screen. In her column (in Dutch), she also reflects on how, in making art and in doing science, it's important to be able to risk failure to get to finished results.
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