Bioscience Initiative

About the Bioscience Inititative

In 2000, the Faculty of Science of Leiden University launched the BioScience Initiative (BSI). Its aim was to bring together those engaged in research in various disciplines, in order to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration. This aim has mainly be realized by organizing a monthly colloquium, the Leiden van Leeuwenhoek Lectures on BioScience. All invited speakers are highly qualified and at the forefront of their field, which in most cases is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary.

Since 2012, the BSI has participated in the Leiden University Research Profile “Health, Life and Biosciences” , this together with the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC).

The committee of the BSI comprises a chairman and a secretary. It has a Program Advisory Board consisting of a number of key contacts in the various institutes belonging to the Faculty and the LUMC, including two PhD students. With their help, the Committee draws up a standing list of potential speakers; the invitations are based on their advice. In this way, the lectures fit the current research in the Faculty of Science and the LUMC perfectly.

The speakers generally stay in Leiden for several days giving them the opportunity to brainstorm with members of the various research groups within the Faculty and the LUMC, and to visit other universities and research institutes occasionally.

PhD students and students are encouraged to attend the lectures. Sometimes speakers are also requested to give a special presentation for students and to have discussions with them.

In 2010, the BSI felt that it was the moment to reach colleagues outside the Science Faculty by attracting the interest of (apart from that of the LUMC) the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW), the Technical University of Delft (TNW, TUD), and the Bioscience Park in Leiden, to become a BioScience Community.

Usually, the lectures are held on the last Thursday of the month, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon; should this coincide with a public holiday, another Thursday is chosen.

Location: Gorlaeus Laboratories, Cell Observatory. (Any other location will be announced on our website, when necessary).