This workshop is organised by members of the NLP@Utrecht community, a research group spanning Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht. The group works at the intersection of natural language processing, machine learning, and real-world applications — combining expertise in language model evaluation, explainable AI, and clinical NLP. AAP 2026 grows directly out of this shared interest in broadening the architectural foundations of language generation.
Robert Bagheri — Utrecht University
Robert A. Bagheri is an Associate Professor of NLP, Machine Learning, and Interpretability at Utrecht University, where he leads the Natural Language and Text Processing lab. His research centres on explainable AI for NLP and the evaluation and application of language models in societal contexts, while actively driving interdisciplinary collaboration through initiatives such as the Utrecht NLP Hub. He holds multiple leadership roles across Utrecht University and the EWUU alliance, contributing to AI strategy, interdisciplinary research, and early-career researcher development.
Ruurd Kuiper — UMC Utrecht
Ruurd Kuiper is an Assistant Professor in AI and NLP for Healthcare at UMC Utrecht. His research focuses on clinically applied machine learning and natural language processing, with an emphasis on trustworthy AI systems and their integration into real-world clinical workflows. His work spans language models, clinical documentation support, and the evaluation and deployment of AI in healthcare practice. He has a special interest in foundational solutions to issues arising from the current implementation of LLMs, and has researched and developed specialized models aimed at circumventing them.
Program Committee
We are in the process of assembling a program committee of experts from relevant research communities to ensure high-quality reviews and paper selection.
Program committee members will be announced here.
Contact
For questions about the workshop, please contact the organizers: