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Ordering a coffee at that nice new corner shop: most of us do this without thinking about it. For people with language impairments (such as aphasia), however, it can pose a serious challenge. What if AI-driven models could help these people – for example, with a smartphone app? Computational linguistics researcher Frank Tsiwah is exploring various ways to make this happen. ‘If it can make a single life better, then it will be worth it.’

BiloMedics, ModAlgae, and Protyon have been selected for the Top 30 of the Academic Startup Competition, the competition for the most promising academic startups in the Netherlands. The Academic Startup Competition is an initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, Techleap, Universities of the Netherlands, UMCNL, ScaleNL, TNO, and Biotech Booster.

In 2025, the UG was once again active in many areas. Researchers and other staff members were awarded grants or prizes, made an impact with their research, and collaborated with various societal partners, in some cases on innovative projects. Below is a small, varied selection from the many news items published by the UG this year.

An international team of astronomers, including Tim Lichtenberg and PhD student Emma Postolec, has found strong evidence for an atmosphere on a rocky exoplanet. The ultra-hot “super-Earth” TOI-561 b appears to be surrounded by a thick layer of gases above a global magma ocean.

Planetary scientists Quentin Changeat and Tim Lichtenberg investigate the characteristics of exoplanets. Changeat studies the atmosphere of hot Jupiter-like planets, while Lichtenberg is excited to have found an atmosphere around a planet that, according to scientific consensus, was not supposed to have one.

Prof. Moniek Tromp has been selected as one of twenty new members of The Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE). The NAE is a select group of engineers, technologists and innovators from science and industry who have delivered outstanding achievements, play a pioneering role in social transitions and are committed to strengthening the role of engineering in our society.

The right to demonstrate as regulated by law in the Netherlands does not require any radical changes. There is room for improvement mainly in the practical implementation, particularly in relation to a number of specific types of demonstrations where bottlenecks may arise. These include, for example, demonstrations in which demonstrators deliberately break the law.

This year's good news is that the national threshold of 30% female professors was reached by the end of 2024. Specifically for the UG, the monitor reveals that the 30% threshold was broken in 2024.

On 12 December it’s Purple Friday: a day on which we come together to show that everyone deserves to be themselves, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. This year, the university once again shows its solidarity. As tradition has it, the Academy Building will be illuminated in purple.

Researchers Jutta Bolt (Faculty of Economics and Business) and Romana Schirhagl (UMCG) have been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant. The European Research Council (ERC) awards these personal grants of two million euros to outstanding scientists. With this grant, the ERC stimulates groundbreaking research in Europe.