Research culture
We want people to develop their own ideas and research programmes—and to do better work together than they could alone.
Our culture is designed to support excellent research by making expertise visible, expectations clear, contributions recognised, and collaboration easier, all while providing a constant stream of quality feedback through close collaboration.
Seven values
The core values of the group define our research culture, and ultimately, the quality of our research outcome.
We pursue meaningful questions, use evidence and methods suited to them, interpret results honestly, and change course when the evidence calls for it. Venue is not a substitute for quality.
We ask for and provide useful critique, and we acknowledge contributions that shape the work. Requests may be accepted, declined, or renegotiated.
We make roles, expectations, commitments, authorship, and important decisions explicit, and revisit them when circumstances change.
We develop initiative and scientific judgement, take ownership of our work, seek advice when needed, and raise blockers early. Independence does not mean working alone.
We maintain sustainable momentum through learning, decisions, and completed research stages. Early exploration needs flexibility; later work needs bounded plans. Pace does not mean meeting every venue deadline.
We recognise publications and grants as well as the visible and invisible work that makes research and the group possible. Meaningful contributions should be made visible.
We can share unfinished ideas, failed attempts, and disagreement openly. We treat each other with respect and help sustain an inclusive research environment.
In practice
The concise formulations come from AAU-NLP Start Here: a practical bridge between the values and day-to-day decisions.
A deadline does not make a paper ready. We submit when the claim, evidence, record, and author review are strong enough—not because a date has arrived. Quality-first is not perfection-first: once the paper is ready, it should move.
Roles, decisions, commitments, feedback timing, and authorship should be explicit and revisited when the work changes.
Blockers and changing circumstances should be raised early. Feedback is a shared contribution, while requests may be accepted, declined, or renegotiated according to expertise and workload.
Contributions and author order should be discussed early and revisited as work develops. Every author must approve submission, and work beyond publication lists should be recognised.
Research time should be protected and work should fit agreed hours. Meeting attendance, physical visibility, or instant responsiveness is not a proxy for contribution.
The collective system
Excellent research depends on individual scientific judgement and on a group that makes expertise, support, credit, and principled disagreement available.
Another member's success does not diminish our own; it can strengthen the group and create opportunities for others. Being a good colleague is part of being a good researcher.
People need space to develop questions and collaborations that are genuinely their own, together with access to feedback, expertise, mentoring, and practical help.
Psychological safety does not lower standards. It lets unfinished ideas, uncertainty, failed experiments, and disagreement be discussed respectfully; independent routes remain available for concerns.
Useful research may leave theory, data, code, methods, or documented negative results. We also recognise mentoring, debugging, infrastructure, onboarding, coordination, and care.
These are working commitments. The group reviews what helps, what does not, and what should change. The detailed procedures, current contacts, and onboarding information remain in the internal handbook and Start Here guide.
Opportunities
There are no open AAU NLP positions at present. New positions are advertised through Aalborg University's official vacancy portal.
Students interested in a thesis or project collaboration may contact the faculty member whose research is the closest fit.
Find a potential supervisor