Conditions in 2025-2026 are:
- We admit students from Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam and students from hbo (universities of applied sciences) in Zuid-Holland. The lab is open to students with a diverse range of expertise. For example: natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, design, law, health, economics, management, humanities, philosophy, etc.
- You will work on your master thesis this academic year. Preferably, you start your thesis (preparation) somewhere between October 2025 and April 2026, so you can actively contribute to in-depth discussions from the start.
- Your thesis accounts for 10 to 60 EC.
- You find your own thesis supervisor(s) at your university. Supervision of your individual master thesis is not part of the LDE lab program.
- You are motivated to join the half year – extracurricular – interdisciplinary program and will attend all 11 bi-weekly in-person sessions.
- You agree with the workload of the program: approximately 60 hours in total.
Commitment we ask from you:
We ask you to attend and actively participate in all sessions of your Thesis Lab program. At the end of the program in July 2026, you will present data, results and/or conclusions from your thesis. You agree to prepare and share with us the following deliverables:
1. Your individual thesis report (no later than November 2026).
2. You contribute to the final event: together with your team you present and organise discussions with attending stakeholders. You will prepare for this event during the sessions of the program.
3. A shared interdisciplinary result with key takeaways for the case holder(s) and network. You will create this together with your lab team during the program and present at the final event. This can be any creative product that you agree upon with the case holder and your lab team, e.g.: a white paper, pattern design booklet, a manifesto, posters, or other combined output.
Certificate
- All students receive a certificate of participation and a grade list (pass/fail) from the Honours Academy Leiden, with a value of 2 EC.
- Students from Leiden University receive 2 EC on their diploma supplement as extracurricular activity.
The selection procedure is as follows:
- Interested? Apply online through the link on the website!
- We will let you know by email if you are invited to an interview.
- We organize online interviews of 15-25 minutes between 15 to 31 October 2025.
- If your study programme requires you to start your thesis earlier, please email us so we can hold an interview earlier at your request.
- The interviews are conducted by the coordinators of the lab.
- During the interviews, we will discuss:
- Your motivation: why do you want to join the Lab? Are you ready to commit to the lab program and to the extra work it requires? Will you be an active member of the interdisciplinary lab group?
- The assignment you’re applying for: does the assignment you’re applying for fit your curriculum? Do you already have ideas of what you would like to research in your thesis?
- Can we make an interdisciplinary team? We are looking for a team consisting of multiple LDE master programs.
- We will let you know if you are selected by email after the interviews.
- If you are selected, we ask you to find your own thesis supervisor (if you haven’t already found one already), as instructed by your own study programme. We can also match you with (an) case holder(s) of the thesis assignment or knowledge partner(s) involved in the lab. Together with them, your thesis supervisor and us, you can start to fine-tune your thesis.
- In January 2026, we organize a short online meeting together with all the other Lab students, to get to know each other and ask questions.
- The Lab Program will officially kick-off on February 4th, 2026.