Basic HTML Version
In order to solve the complex social challenges ahead,
we need to work across traditional subject barriers to
find new solutions. An understanding of mutual depend-
ence is emerging from the ”sharp end” of different
disciplines, from biotechnology and nanotechnology,
to medicine, chemistry, biology, informatics, commu-
nicational subjects, aquaculture, management, arts,
robotics, ecology, philosophy, planning, architecture,
political science, linguistics, psychology and many more.
Interdisciplinary work is pivotal for cooperating to solve
large, complex problems. This interdisciplinary work de-
pends on an ”active” infrastructure that ties the campus
together, with spaces that accommodate conversation,
group work and supervision.
The university does not exist in a social vacuum; it must
follow the development of the general society. In medi-
cine, for instance, patients spend less and less time at
hospitals, and more treatment and observation takes
place in policlinics and in the municipal health services.
Considering this, it is likely that more students and em-
ployees will work partially outside the campus.
The cooperation between NTNU and SINTEF plays a
special part. The basic model is that academic staff at
NTNU contributes to SINTEF’s contract research, while
SINTEF researchers teach at NTNU. The institutions
share laboratories and scientific equipment, and have
developed their cooperation into a unique, international
competitive advantage. In a campus perspective, the
values developed in the cooperation between NTNU and
SINTEF must be taken care of and further developed.
Particularly, the geographical proximity between the
academic environments must be sustained, and the
cooperation with regard to laboratories and scientific
equipment continued.
The new SiT student village at Lerkendal
8