IDUN – from PhD to professor
At NTNU's Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, only 13% of the professors are women. This is partly due to the fact that it is educated too few women at the master level and partly that many women fall out of the career ladder.
Idun Reiten is the first female professor at IE NTNU. IDUN is a project that starts 1.8.2019 and receives 9,3 MNOK funding from the Research Council of Norway under the BALANSE framework and from NTNU. The Goal is an increase of at least 15 - 20% women on all levels by the end of 2022.
In the IDUN project we will address three different issues to improve gender equality. We shall:
- recruit more women to all levels, from PhD to professor.
- limit the dropout rate for women.
- help to increase the proportion of women in international research projects.
Building on gender equality projects
In the IDUN project we will be building on knowledge and experience from three ongoing gender equality projects at NTNU: weLead, the girl project Ada, and the «Equality from below. Towards gender equality at NTNU in 2025» project. Based on the experiences of these three, we will work with the main elements:
- Strategy process
- Collaborative project
- International network
Strategy process
IDUN will create an integrated and binding collaboration between the management and the employees at the faculty, with a focus on gender equality. An important measure against dropout will be to create a mentor scheme for women at the master level to associate professor level.
A collaborative project
IDUN will build on the methods used in the girl project Ada. Two of the success factors in Ada are the focus on recruitment and dropout prevention. IDUN will use Ada's experience to increase the proportion of women among permanent academic staff and in management positions.
An international network project
IDUN will work with the girl project Ada to strengthen the focus on gender equality among our international partners, especially in relation to Nordic5Tech - an established collaboration between the five leading technology universities in the Nordic countries. By formalizing and developing existing networks, IDUN will contribute to international mentoring schemes between women in scientific positions at different levels. In addition, we will strengthen the faculty's gender equality in externally funded projects, such as Horizon2020, where all funded projects must have a strategy for recruiting women.
