Vidi grants for 11 researchers from Leiden University
NWO grants
Eleven researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Vidi grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This funding of up to €850,000 enables talented researchers to develop their own line of research and build or expand their own research group.
The Vidi is an individual research grant aimed at researchers who are further developing their leadership skills. The projects that receive funding therefore focus on a wide range of topics.
New possibilities for drug design
Marta Artola Perez de Azanza (Leids Institute of Chemistry)
With her project Artola Perez de Azanza aims to develop a new class of molecules that interact with enzymes in a precise and controlled manner. By expanding current chemical approaches and creating these innovative tools, the project will help the researchers understand how proteins function and open up new possibilities for drug design, including novel antibiotics.
The subtle symptoms of autoimmune diseases
Rachel Knevel (LUMC)
Rheumatic diseases are autoimmune diseases that often begin years before the first symptoms appear. As early symptoms are subtle, it is difficult to study how the disease develops. In this project, the researchers will develop computer models that will enable them to recognise early warning signs in routine medical records, long before a patient is referred to a specialist. The model will update its risk estimate at every healthcare contact and support research and trials that could prevent rheumatic diseases. The approach can also be applied to other rare conditions.
Visualising the flow of quantum waves
Kaveh Lahabi (Leids Institute of Physics)
Electrons in ordinary metals act as individual particles. In quantum materials, the electrons can come together and act more like a single wave. Currently, researchers do not understand how this wave forms. This project aims to build a microscope that can visualise exactly how this wave flows, to unravel the quantum mechanical nature of real materials.
Hidden chemistry in space
Thanja Lamberts (Leids Institute of Chemistry/Leiden Observatory)
The space between the stars may seem empty, but it hosts a hidden chemistry on tiny dust grains coated with ‘ice’. Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope provide detailed insight into the abundance of simple molecules such as water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in these ices, but how they react under cosmic radiation is poorly understood. This project will use computer simulations to uncover how radiation drives chemical changes in these icy environments, helping us understand how the building blocks of planets, and life, are formed in space.
How do bacteria recognise a virus based on the shape of DNA?
Luuk Loeff (LUMC)
Bacteria are constantly attacked by viruses and use immune systems to destroy invading DNA. Most known systems recognise specific DNA patterns, but recent work suggests that some detect the shape of DNA instead. This project will investigate how bacteria use DNA structure to distinguish viral DNA from their own and how viruses evolve ways to escape this detection. This research will uncover new ways the immune system recognises threats and may inspire future tools for biotechnology.
Enduring narratives across distant-water islands
Annachiara Raia (African Studies Centre/Centre for the Arts in Society)
Raia will study narrative migrations that cross geopolitical borders and forge intertextual and religious relations among islanders. Focusing on the 3000-year-old wandering story of Joseph and other stories circulating the islands of Lamu, Madagascar and Java, the researchers will examine how narratives travel, are re-enacted and shaped by their places of production and preservation. The project will reveal how, despite island collections’ vulnerability to fragmentation and loss, these narratives endure and function as tools through which communities interpret the world, its histories and human behaviour.
Echoes of the plague
Rachel Schats (Archaeology)
With the Echoes of the Plague project, Schats will investigate how repeated plague outbreaks affected people in the Netherlands between 1350 and 1850. By studying human remains, ancient DNA, archaeological data and historical records, she will investigate who died during these epidemics and why. Comparing plague hospital burials with ordinary cemeteries, the project will reveal how disease, living conditions and inequality influenced survival. This will help us understand how past epidemics operated and why some people were more vulnerable than others.
How did complex societies form in unpredictable desert environments?
Jennifer Swerida (Archaeology)
In many parts of the world, ancient communities thrived in desert environments where the availability of water and other important resources was unpredictable. Swerida will investigate how people thrived under these conditions. Focusing on the landscape around the UNESCO site of Bat in Oman, the project combines archaeology with a novel method of reconstructing short-term changes in local environmental conditions. The results will offer new insights into how complex societies form under climate uncertainty – past lessons with clear relevance for today.
Social tipping points: how different ideas about changing social norms can encourage climate action
Anne Urai (Psychology)
Climate change demands large-scale behaviour change, and social tipping points (sudden shifts in social norms) can play a crucial role. This project will investigate how beliefs in changing social norms affect people’s perceptions and behaviour. Combining computer models, laboratory games and real-world experiments, the researchers will test whether expecting a tipping point makes people quicker to spot trends and join others, in turn triggering social tipping points.
What causes differences in treatment response to autoimmune diseases?
Maartje Huijbers (LUMC)
Autoimmune diseases arise when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. Despite advances in knowledge and treatment, many patients still experience severe symptoms, and disease severity and treatment response vary widely. This project will investigate how these differences arise by analysing the mix of harmful antibodies in the blood and mapping how they disrupt normal bodily functions. The researchers will also develop a new model that mimics chronic autoimmune diseases to test therapies more realistically. The results may help improve diagnostics and enable more personalised treatments.
Why gut inflammation persists in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
Vincent van Unen (LUMC)
The prevalence of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis is rising worldwide. In many patients, gut inflammation persists despite treatment. Van Unen hypothesises that a specific group of intestinal immune cells plays a key role in this ongoing damage. This project will investigate how these cells malfunction, why some patients do not respond well to therapy, and how this process might be redirected. Using gut biopsies, advanced cell analysis and mini-gut models, the researchers aim to identify new leads for more targeted treatment for patients.