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Leiden University

Universiteit Leiden

Mission

Leiden University attaches great value to freedom of spirit, thought and speech. This is expressed in our motto: Libertatis Praesidium – Bastion of Freedom.
All members of our university community endorse our four core values: Connecting, Innovative, Responsible and Free. These are derived from our motto and from our Leiden academic identity and culture.
The seven characteristics below define the identity of Leiden University.
  1. Pioneering research and teaching based on a wide diversity of academic disciplines
  2. Deep-rooted academic freedom
  3. Intrinsic international orientation
  4. Open, active and engaged University community
  5. University in two cities
  6. Excellent research facilities and renowned collections
  7. Strong and intricate knowledge infrastructure

Contribution to Open Science

Leiden University is a strong proponent of Open Science and has a long history in providing Open Access to its dissertations (required since 2006) and peer reviewed articles (required since 2017) and was one of the early adopters of data management plans.ThroughprogramssuchasAcademia in Motionwestrive for a moreopen and transparentresearchculture at our institution. 

Connecting to a broader Open Science community fully aligns with the core values from our mission. Becoming an OpenAIRE member and joining our National Members Consortium is a step towards a stable community and infrastructure.

Leiden University is one of the signees of the BarcelonaDeclaration on Open Research Information which is in linewith the participation in OpenAIRE. Leiden UniversityLibraries and researchersfromLeiden’srenowned Centre for Science and TechnologyStudies (CWTS) and the Leiden University Medical Center areactiveparticipants in bigopeninfrastructureprojectsfundedby the Netherlands Research Council (NWO) suchas the DutchRepositoryFederation, NextGenerationPublishing and RetroFAIR.

Goals and objectives

Leiden University plans to continue its work in Open Science and plays a leading role in several national open infrastructure projects and intends to actively participate in OpenAIRE committees.
  • Member since
    2026
Contact Info
Rutger de Jong
Repository Manager
Contact
Services
For its researchers and students, Leiden University offers a wide variety of services to help with copyrights, Open Access, Research Data (Management) and Read & Publish deals. With programs such as Academia in Motion, the university supports the movement of academia towards a more open knowledge community. This challenges us to innovate and take action. Therefore, Leiden University commits to:
  • promote a culture of openness and transparency across the domains of teaching, research, patient care, as well as in the domain of organisation, administration and advice; 
  • strengthen the quality of our academic work rather than increasing the quantity of output and adopt a broader, more inclusive, approach to quality assessment;
  • value societal engagement and relevance as an integral part of academic work; 
  • set strategic team goals, and recognise and reward everyone’s contributions to these goals in a balanced and transparent manner; 
  • invest in personal and organisational leadership skills as a core competency for everyone in our organisation. 
For researchers we provide the following repositories:
  • Digital Collections, consisting of our digitized heritage collections including world renown Asian collections, photographs, historical maps and medieval manuscripts
  • Scholarly Publications, consisting of our current research output including dissertations of Leiden scholars and several journals connected to Leiden University