news 2026

This weekend we will be switching to a new system for handling student queries. From 16 March you can track the status of your question or request in your portal. Click to read the news article. Better insulation and ventilation in social housing means that children need less medication for asthma or allergies.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded Vici funding to 39 adventurous, talented and pioneering researchers, including five from VU Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC/affiliated VU. The Vici grant enables researchers to develop an innovative line of research and further expand a research group over the next five years.

Children who eat healthily often continue to do so as adults. That is why Gertrude Zeinstra is studying programmes that help schools and parents to teach children healthy eating habits. These are programmes where they try fruits and vegetables, cook and grow them and are surrounded by good examples.

Avian influenza (Avian influenza, HPAI H5N1) has been detected in a Dutch dairy cow. Research by Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (part of Wageningen University & Research) shows that the cow in question has antibodies against the avian influenza virus. No virus particles were found in the animal. This means the cow is not shedding the virus and does not pose a risk to public health.

People diagnosed with HIV in the Netherlands face a significantly lower probability of employment and a substantial loss of income for up to seven years following their diagnosis. This is the main conclusion of a new study by VU economists Wendy Janssens and Menno Pradhan conducted in collaboration with researchers from the UvA and Amsterdam UMC.

Researchers from Utrecht University and partners from the United Kingdom have found evidence for the first time that gray seals can also injure dolphin species. Until now, such interactions were known almost exclusively in porpoises. The study, published today in the scientific journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, shows that gray seals may have a broader impact on small cetaceans in the North Sea than previously thought.

Researchers from the University of Twente, MST and Politecnico di Milano conducted  a pilot study  to explore whether a GPT-controlled social robot can support patients with medical information in a hospital setting. The first results are cautiously positive: patients and caregivers accept the technology.

A popular technique for studying brain disorders, known as lesion network mapping (LNM), appears to have a fundamental limitation. This is the conclusion of neuroscientists from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Queensland (Australia) after an extensive analysis of more than 200 studies.

To monitor patients during and after surgery or in the intensive care unit, clinicians use catheters to keep a close eye on the circulatory system.

A new wearable technology could change how we monitor unborn babies at home. PhD researcher Yijing Zhang (Department of Electrical Engineering) has developed a comfortable, portable garment that allows pregnant women to measure their baby's heartbeat without the need for sticky, uncomfortable gel-based electrode sensors or direct skin contact.

Why does one woman spontaneously conceive twins while another never does? That question is central to the of behavioral geneticist Nikki Hubers.