Article and graphics by Sofie Astrup, AAU Communication and Public Affairs. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.

Four women researchers from Aalborg University received grants from the Inge Lehmann Programme at Independent Research Fund Denmark. They can pursue their own ideas and strengthen their career opportunities in research.

The Inge Lehmann programme is aimed at new researchers with potential for research and research management at a high international level. The programme is part of the political agreement on the distribution of the research reserve in 2024 and aims to reduce gender inequality, especially in the early stages of the research career.

The four AAU researchers are:

Carla Florencia Griggio, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science:
"This project aims to create guidelines for designing messaging apps that allow different apps to talk to each other while respecting people's boundaries. The goal is to provide reliable guidelines for app developers and policymakers that help them build messaging platforms that give the user more freedom to choose their own favourite apps while maintaining control over their conversations and privacy," she tells Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read more about Carla Florencia Griggio.

Helene Halkjær Jensen, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biosciences:
"Our molecular understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases like autism, ADHD and schizophrenia is limited. We know that there are some molecular commonalities in these diseases – but we just don't understand what they do. We have identified a specific type of signalling as one of these common features. In this project, we will investigate how this type of signalling interferes with the function of nerve cells and why it can lead to disease. I hope that we help enhance our understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases, because it is absolutely central to being able to improve our medical treatments – and it is needed," she describes.

Read more about Helene Halkjær Jensen.

Majse Lind, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Psychology:
"The purpose of the study is to investigate key psychological mechanisms that potentially contribute to typical and atypical developmental trajectories in adolescence. The study will shed light on how personality traits and narrative identity develop over time, and how these are related to mental illness and level of functioning. By gaining insight into different developmental trajectories and the mechanisms that contribute to them, we expect to be able to pave the way for better opportunities for treatment interventions for vulnerable young people. The results will help politicians, researchers and clinicians achieve a better understanding of when, how and which young people develop inappropriately and therefore need extra help and support," she says, according to Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read more about Majse Lind.

Yan Zhao, Lektor fra Institut for Datalogi:
"Briefly, the project aims to develop a framework for distributing incoming tasks to workers so that the tasks can be carried out as efficiently as possible. In geo-crowdsourcing, users send requests for geographical tasks to a central service that then continuously distributes the tasks to associated workers who receive payment for performing the tasks, such as with Flextrafik or JUST EAT. As a key component, the framework will include AI algorithms that take into account a aspects like pick-up and delivery locations, timing requirements for pick-up and delivery," she tells Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read more about Yan Zhao.