About IDUN

IDUN Scientific Mentoring Program

The central measure in the project is the employment of nine female adjunct professors, at least one at each of the seven institutes at the faculty. In the reporting period, the focus has been on the recruitment of candidates for these positions. In close collaboration with the department heads and the faculty’s senior HR advisers, the project has recruited 9 excellent female mentors. IDUN provides training for these professors to become role models and mentors for 3-5 mentees each.

Building on gender equality projects

In the IDUN project is 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 work with the main elements:

• Strategy process
• Collaborative project
• International network

Strategy process

IDUN creates 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 is to create a mentor scheme for women at the master level to associate professor level.

A collaborative project

IDUN builds on the methods used in The Girl Project Ada and WeLead. Two of the success factors in Ada are the focus on recruitment and dropout prevention. IDUN buids upon Ada's experience to increase the proportion of women among permanent academic staff and in management positions. IDUN's team works closely with all department heads and HR, and provides support for both, the researchers and top management.

An international network project

IDUN works 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 contributes to international mentoring schemes between women in scientific positions at different levels. In addition, IDUN strengthens the faculty's gender equality in externally funded projects, such as Horizon2020, where all funded projects must have a strategy for recruiting women.