This is obtained through our core activities research, research-based education, innovation, and dissemination. Innovation is one of our main tasks.  

Our goal is "to be the leading national contributor to entrepreneurship and innovation originating in our disciplines" – all this according to the faculty's strategy.

The IE Faculty contributes significantly to an increased level of innovation driven by ICT and digitalisation in existing Norwegian business and public sectors, with an emphasis on utilising our national advantages and resources.

Electrification and digitalisation of the energy system are central to achieving the climate goals. The IE Faculty contributes to societal change and to the green transition through its innovation activities.

What is innovation?

Innovations are new or significantly improved goods, services, processes, organizational forms, forms of communication, business or marketing models that are used to achieve added value, societal or private benefit. 

In short: 

• New 
• Useful 
• Utilised – someone must have adopted the innovation

NTNU's contribution to innovation takes place through indirect and direct contributions

Indirect contributions can be understood as NTNU's contribution to innovation competence and innovation culture. This is done through integrating innovation into education and research education, and through the creation of new ideas from students and staff. Other sides of it are NTNU facilitating innovation by, for example, supporting incubators and creating their own innovation positions, hosting a centre to create value from research results and good ideas, promoting incentives for innovation, handing out innovation grants and more.

In addition, there is an interaction between NTNU on the one hand, and the public sector and business on the other, where one mutually involves each other in order to make use of the existing competence. 

Direct contributions to innovation from NTNU constitute the innovation each and everyone may encounter in everyday life in the form of products, services, or improvements. Ideas and results from innovation and research are passed on to commercialisation and business development or are used for the development of the public sector and society at large. 

Every year many interesting and innovative projects are developed at the IE Faculty. We wish to show some of them.