“Would you like a coffee?” Peter Dalsgaard leads the way to the kitchenette on the second floor of the Wiener Building in Katrinebjerg. And in the time it takes the machine to make two drinks, two of his colleagues manage to come in and congratulation him.

On 20 February, Peter Dalsgaard received the national Elite Research Prize – conferred on him by HM Queen Mary and minister for higher education and science Christina Egelund.  The prize includes DKK 1 million for research activities and DKK 200,000 as a personal award of merit.

In its nomination of Peter Dalsgaard, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science writes that his “groundbreaking research [is] helping to keep people in the centre” in a “rapidly changing technology landscape in which technological breakthroughs are often in focus.”

A niche that became popular

In his research, Peter Dalsgaard examines the relationship between people and IT. And in this interdisciplinary research field between the humanities and computer science, he leans more towards the former discipline. Because, for the last ten years, he’s been particularly interested in how people use technology when working creatively – and this question still fascinates him.

“I’m not the first to conduct research on this topic, but it has been pretty niche for many years. Digitalisation has often been about how to make routine work more efficient, even though people also use digital tools to support creative projects. It’s just that this aspect hasn’t featured as highly in the world of research,” he explains.

Today, however, many people have turned their attention to new digital technologies that strike at the heart of this intersection of technology and people – something that Peter Dalsgaard has been exploring for years.

“Since ChatGPT made its mark, many more people have become aware of the potential associated with computers being able to perform tasks that we previously assumed only humans could perform. Because we assumed that computers could not be creative,” he says.

We need a wide range of research fields we can call on

In this way, Peter Dalsgaard’s area of research is an example of a niche field that suddenly became highly relevant for society in general. And this, according to Dalsgaard, illustrates the importance of investing in a wide range of research fields.

“We must accept that not all research can be highly topical or relevant all of the time.”

“It’s not easy to know what research we’ll need at any given time. So the university has a duty to support a wide palette of research fields that can be called on when required. We must accept that not all research can be highly topical or relevant all of the time. Because we need a broad knowledge base to draw on when the world develops in unforeseen ways,” he says.

Among recent examples of research that proved to be important to the general public, Peter Dalsgaard mentions research on the history of Ukraine and the conflict in Palestine.

With this in mind, Peter Dalsgaard is critical of the political management of research funds, which he believes is becoming more prevalent.

Over time, more money is being earmarked to help research go in particular directions. Not by directing more people into specific areas but by redistributing funding. So there are areas in which no research is being done at all, or in which it’s difficult to conduct research. In my field, we have been lucky and skilled at securing funding, but there are many fields that are being starved. And then there is nobody to take the call when we suddenly need answers, because politicians have failed to support a wide variety of research fields,” he says.

A generous research team

Of course, it takes more than funding to create a thriving research team. If you ask Peter Dalsgaard, it also takes ambition, curiosity, compassion and generosity.

“I once talked to a professor, a role model for me, who said something to the effect that, in the world of research, everyone is smart and clever. But that you could stand out by being kind and compassionate,” he explains.

Early in is career, when building up a research team, he spent a long time looking for inspiration from colleagues who had already established thriving research groups.

“I looked at groups I wanted to emulate, and I talked to the people there to get an insight into which values they built their teams around and what they were aiming for. You need to have something to aim for when you start something new – and ambition, curiosity, compassion and generosity encapsulate what I’m striving towards,” he explains.

“The research teams that thrive over time are those in which people are generous enough to give their time.”

While ambition and curiosity often arise naturally in leading research fields, compassion and generosity are two values that he actively strives to foster in his research team. He has drawn inspiration from his own mentors and from conversations with both local and international colleagues.

“Many people in our field are incredibly busy, but the research teams that thrive over time are those in which people are generous enough to give their time. Not just by being there but by making it clear that they are engaged in what you’re doing. As a research director, I think that generosity is about taking researchers in my team seriously and being interested in why they are researching what they are and how I can help them develop their area of research,” he says.