The purpose of the interdisciplinary teams is to foster activities that:

• Strengthen NTNU’s research and innovation activities within a specific topic.
• Create meeting points for scientific discussions, sharing research results and experiences, methodologies and ideas for new projects and research.
• Establish and strengthen research collaborations with external stakeholders from private and public sector. 
• Create common ground for - and coordinate - proposals for external funding for projects and centers, especially towards calls from EU and the Research Council of Norway.
• Increase the visibility, relevance, and impact of NTNU’s research.

NTNU Health and Life Science will contribute with:

• Funding support (up to 200.000* over 2 years) for team activities such as:
  • Workshops
  • Seminars
  • Research visits and hosting guest researchers
  • Communication activities
  • Developing research ideas, establishing consortia, and proposal writing
• Visibility through the webpage and newsletters of NTNU Health and Life Science 
• Priority for additional network-related funding
• Support/advice on network activities and facilitation of collaborations, if relevant

* Teams that include participants from Trondheim municipality will receive additional funds through Universitetskommunen TRD3.0.

What is an interdisciplinary team?

An interdisciplinary team consists of:

Required:

• A leader group consisting of 3 participants from NTNU, representing different scientific disciplines and at least 2 different faculties/VM.
• The team leader needs to be employed in a permanent academic position at NTNU.

Optional, but encouraged:

• Other scientific participants from NTNU representing relevant disciplines and competences for the topic. Young researchers (PhDs and postdocs) are most welcome.
• Participants from private or public sector (for example industry, non-governmental organizations, hospitals, NAV, and municipalities, not including other research institutions), that represent problem owners (stakeholders) and research collaborators. Participants from Trondheim municipality are especially encouraged. 

The team must focus on a research topic that falls within one or more of the three focus areas of NTNU Health and Life Science (a comprehensive overview can be found on our website): 

One Health: Understanding how the interdependence between humans, animals, plants, microbes, and their shared environment affects the health of living organisms.
Healthy life spans: Understanding causes of “lifestyle” diseases, how to prevent them and what promotes healthy lives.
Value-based health services: Understanding how health systems and services can be designed and managed, how to improve quality of care, what is of value to the patient and society, and how to promote efficient use of resources.

What is required of the teams?

• The team must appoint a chair and a small group of people responsible for facilitating and coordinating activities. 
• The team must outline a plan for activities (including matching budget) for 2025 and 2026 that clearly contributes to building a functional interdisciplinary team. 
• The team should have a plan for engaging Bachelor-, Master-, PhD-students, and postdocs in the team’s research.
• Within one year, the team must present a plan (roadmap) for attracting external funding.
• Within two years, the team must have applied for external funding equal to at least two PhD positions.
• The team must give a short, annual report on their activities.
• The team must contribute to relevant activities arranged by NTNU Health and Life Science.

An evaluation of the teams will take place after 2 years, and if successful the teams may receive funding for another 2-year period.

Application deadline

01.11.2024 (within 23:59)

Start date

01.01.2025

Questions? 

Marius Widerøe, Director: marius.wideroe@ntnu.no  
Liv Eggset Falkenberg, Coordinator: liv.falkenberg@ntnu.no

Focus areas

Trygve Brautaset, Deputy leader/One Health: trygve.brautaset@ntnu.no 
Monika Haga, Deputy leader/Healthy life spans: monika.haga@ntnu.no 
Heidi C. Dreyer, Deputy leader/Value-based health care: heidi.c.dreyer@ntnu.no