The vision of the FRONTIER Center for Advanced SSH is to stimulate innovative research and creative thinking within the humanities and social sciences at Aalborg University and beyond. FRONTIER aims to foster pioneering scholarship and interdisciplinary collaboration by addressing critical theoretical and methodological challenges and by supporting the development of new ideas and research programmes that advance frontier research at the intersection of the social sciences and humanities. Ultimately, the ambition is to establish FRONTIER as a platform for advanced SSH research and as a catalyst for transformative thinking and innovative, next-generation scholarship.

Established in 2025, FRONTIER is based on the acknowledgement that creative ideas need a place to strive. Besides developing new research projects, grant proposals, and thought-provoking research seminars, FRONTIER aims to foster fruitful collaboration based on unorthodox thinking and original ideas. FRONTIER offers an extraordinary platform for scholars to meet, interact, and collaborate, and to push the limits of their research agendas. The center operates with an annual research topic that invites researchers to apply for seed funding and join the project accelerator programme. 

The theme of the 2026 FRONTIER research programme is Frontier of Democracy (FoD). On October 1st, 2025 the AAU SSH Faculty is launching a call for pioneering projects dedicated to generating bold, original ideas about the future of democracy. The programme aims to provide seed investment of 100.000 DKK to five projects across the faculty with a duration of 12 months. The projects are reviewed and selected in open competition.

The first call is designed to address current and future challenges to democracy. Selected research teams are provided with funding to host workshops, appoint research assistants, or convene writing retreats and collaborative workshops. The teams are guided by the FRONTIER Directors who will provide hands-on advice and training for developing and maturing frontier research proposals.  

New utopias and creative thinking about current and future models of democracy are more necessary than ever before. Our globalized, interconnected, and technologically intensive societies are confronted with immense democratic, social and cultural challenges. Technology and geopolitics are challenging established notions of democratic engagement and accountability.

With the first five FoD projects selected and operational in 2026, the SSH Faculty launches a dedicated exercise to improve the knowledge base and impact of social sciences and humanities to significantly strengthen democratic capabilities and meet emerging societal challenges.

CONTACT:

David Budtz Pedersen, Director — M: (+45) 3029 2974 | Email: davidp@hum.aau.dk

Rolf Hvidtfeldt, Co-Director — M: (+45) 4162 2614 | Email: rolfh@hum.aau.dk

Maja Vemmelund Rasmussen, Project Manager — M: (+45) 9940 2629 | Email: mvr@adm.aau.dk