Christian Dindler - Distinguished Senior Innovator at Aarhus University

Christian Dindler, Associate professor at the School of Communication and Culture, creates platforms where humanities students can connect with businesses, to make the businesses aware of the skills that these students bring to the table and to help the students navigate their careers. 

DSI projects

The innovation project(s) that formed the basis for the appointment to the Distinguished Senior Innovator programme.

UNIT: Stronger connections between students and industry

The UNIT project aims to strengthen the connection between students and employers by introducing a new approach to recruitment.

UNIT is a two-sided platform that connects students and employers through two complementary mechanisms:

  1. The platform enables students to showcase their skills by building and maintaining portfolios of projects that demonstrate their competencies to employers and fellow students. Generative AI helps students identify and articulate the skills they have developed through projects, coursework and other educational activities. In addition to making their competencies visible to employers, the platform also supports ongoing reflection on students' academic development and professional growth.
  2. For employers, UNIT offers a new way to discover, engage with and recruit future talent. Rather than relying on traditional job advertisements, employers use a generative AI interface to describe the types of tasks they need solved, as well as their business, culture and values. UNIT then matches student portfolios with employer needs, creating connections between students' competencies and organisations' requirements.

Christian Dindler leads the project in collaboration with Junior Innovator Adrian Tilvar. The project is further supported by IT Vest, Gejst Studio and a panel of employers.

DSI activities

Outreach initiatives aimed at inspiring more researchers to explore innovation and entrepreneurship.

Innovation at Arts

In collaboration with Distinguished Senior Innovator Heather Swanson, Christian Dindler is working to explore and expand opportunities for research-based innovation at the Faculty of Arts.

This is achieved through a range of initiatives designed to provide individual researchers and research groups with the knowledge, resources and infrastructure they need to pursue innovation emerging from their research, including:

  • Workshops and meetings for research programmes, where researchers meet with Kitchen to explore resources, opportunities and pathways for research-based innovation.
  • Tailored programmes for individual researchers who want to explore the innovation potential of their research.
  • Courses for early-career and senior researchers who want to strengthen their capabilities in collaborating with external partners, business development and entrepreneurship.
  • Representation in internal and external forums to promote the Faculty of Arts' work with research-based innovation.
Revised 10.07.2026
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Nina Heiberg Lyhne