Why Engage?
The world is constantly changing, with increasing pace and intensity. These changes have profound consequences for human life—for the climate and environment, technological opportunities, business practices, public policy, safety, education, and society as a whole.
This complex environment calls for citizens who have the ability to identify challenges, the will to act upon these challenges, the knowledge to acquire the resources and skills needed and the confidence to be the driving force for change, regardless of resistance. These people are the agents of change, the entrepreneurs, willing and able to make changes, engaging challenges with creativity and fearlessness.
The ambition of Engage is to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills at the higher education level to become change agents in all contexts.
Our Ambition
Engage ambitions is to ensure that the ability to identify new opportunities, the will to act upon these opportunities, and the knowledge to acquire the resources and skills needed to innovate for the better, becomes fundamental elements in all disciplines at the higher education level.
We call for a change in how universities educate students in entrepreneurial skills that can prepare them for important roles as change agents in business and society.
Engage develops education methods and materials on entrepreneurship, advises on the implementation of entrepreneurship in all disciplines at the higher education level and facilitates cooperation and networking. Student engagement is key for developing a center for excellence in education, and the students are involved in designing and testing new teaching methods in various contexts.
Engage has a strong research group connected to the centre, including ten PhD candidates. Through research, Engage seeks to generate new knowledge about how to teach entrepreneurial skills in various disciplines.
Spark* NTNU is a mentoring service by and for students with a business idea. It is a free service for all students at NTNU were they can register their idea and get appointed a student mentor that will help them reach the next step to try to help bring the idea to life.
The main goal of Spark is to introduce as many students as possible to the idea that commercialization of an idea is possible.
Engage Partners
Engage is a consortium consisting of the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, Nord University Business School, NTNU Experts in Teamwork, TrollLABS and Spark NTNU.
Together these five partners contribute with variations in action-based, challenge-based and experience-based learning models as a basis for interdisciplinary interactions and complementary skills and approaches. This is a strong foundation for developing entrepreneurial skills among students in different disciplines. The centre host is NTNU faculty of economics and management.
Click on a partner to know more!
Established in 1985, Nord University Business School has grown continuously and is today the leading educator of management personnel to the business community in Northern Norway.
Nord University Business School provides courses and specializations in entrepreneurship at the Bachelor, MBA, MSc, and PhD levels, and has a strong research community within the field of entrepreneurship.
Experts in Teamwork (EiT) is a master’s degree course in which students develop their interdisciplinary teamwork skills. The course is compulsory for all students in master’s programmes and programmes of professional study at NTNU.
TrollLABS is a research and prototyping laboratory, established in 2014. In time of technological and social discontinuities, the capability of a company to generate radical new products, services and systems becomes critical.
TrollLABS is aiming at understanding the development of radical new ideas in the very early phases of product development – the early fuzzy front end.
NTNU School of Entrepreneurship (NSE) is a two-year master degree program offered by the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU, with a focus on business development and technology-based entrepreneurship.
NSE´s vision is to educate the best business developers in the world, and the purpose is twofold:
To provide a state-of-the-art educational program to students seeking a career within entrepreneurship and commercialization of technology.
To contribute to the commercialization of ideas from the technology community at NTNU and other innovation communities.
Work Packages
The Centre is organized in five working projects (WP).
WPs 1, 2 and 3 provide content based on collaborative skills, rapid prototyping and venture creation. These WPs are deeply rooted in the current activities of the consortium of the center. The Centre will enable, and benefit from, the coordination gains based on the interactions between these three WPs.
WP4 develops tools for transforming teaching in various types of contexts towards a more action-based approach.
WP5 documents and evaluates the activities in Engage, and assemble the knowledge to create and disseminate a reliable and comprehensive knowledge base. The plan is to spread the entrepreneurial mindset broadly during the first five years and then use the following five years to anchor the transformed practices in the different contexts.
Developing collaborative skills in interdisciplinary teams
WP1 explores in depth the elements that characterize collaborative skills in interdisciplinary teams, methods for acquiring collaborative skills in an experience-based context, and ways of assessing these skills among students. The main objectives of WP1 are to develop methods and approaches to develop students’ interdisciplinary teamwork skills, and also challenge students to develop their entrepreneurial skills and engage in entrepreneurial behaviour.
Venture Creation Methods In A Research Setting
The main objective of WP2 is to develop interactive methods for students to develop products for venture creation, e.g. through design thinking or rapid prototyping and solving real problems with business potential, and to encourage students to more quickly test their ideas for commercial activity and potentially become entrepreneurs.
Venture Creation Programs
WP3 will identify, map and describe leading venture creation programs using an action-based approach,i.e. teaching “through” entrepreneurship as opposed to “about” entrepreneurship or “for” entrepreneurship. The mapping of best practices will be related to organization, content, student engagement and output. Even though the focus is on specialized entrepreneurship education and sharing of methods with other programs seeking venture creation as an output, a key issue will be how these programs can contribute to a permanent change of mindset in broader groups of students.
Increase Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindset And Skills In Higher Education
WP4 seek to benefit from the coordination gains from WP1-WP3. WP4 focus on entrepreneurship in different contexts and on finding appropriate approaches for introducing action components in different disciplines and professions that can stimulate students’ entrepreneurial skills and mindsets.
Documentation and Dissemination of Knowledge
WP5 will orchestrate the resources and projects in Engage and create a common ground by gathering, combining and accumulating knowledge, and identifying the needs for additional knowledge with regard to developing students’ entrepreneurial skills. The main objective of WP5 is therefore to document and evaluate the activities in Engage, but also to assemble the knowledge to create and disseminate a comprehensive knowledge base regarding entrepreneurship education
The Management Group
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Øystein Widding
Center Director
Frode Halvorsen
Center Coordinator
Ela Sjølie
Leader WP1
Martin Steinert
Leader WP2
Erlend Dehlin
Leader WP3
Gry Alsos
Leader WP4
Kari Djupdal
Leader WP5
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Ben Toscher
PhD Candidate
Ben Toscher started as a PhD candidate at Engage in August 2017. His research focuses on entrepreneurship education in higher music education. He is currently in the process of planning and teaching a course in entrepreneurship as part of the Music, Communication, and Technology degree at the NTNU the Department of Music. Previously, Ben has experience as a climate and energy consultant assisting large institutions and regulatory agencies in the U.S., in addition to founding several firms as an entrepreneur while working as a performing artist. He holds a MSc in Business and Economics from the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, and a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Bjørg Riibe Ramskjell
Project Leader
Bjørg Riibe Ramskjell is assistant professor at Nord University Business School, and is working as a project leader in Engage. She works with projects related to e.g. active learning forms in entrepreneurship education, training in teamwork skills, and student engagement. Areas of teaching includes teamwork and training in practical teamwork skills, communication and facilitation. Bjørg has a master in applied linguistics, with focus on institutional communication and conflict mediation. Her previous experience includes working with interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork in both an engineering company and with master students at NTNU in Trondheim. She has also worked with organizational development.
Cecilie Haukland
PhD Candidate
Cecilie Haukland started as a PhD candidate at Engage in september 2017. She has a MSc Business from Nord University, with specialization in entrepreneurship and innovation management. She was graduated a nurse in 2007, and have worked at Nordlandssykehuset within the psychiatric sector, for the past 8 years. Her research focus is on entrepreneurship education and mental health and the purpose is to examine how entrepreneurship education can be designed and delivered in ways that embrace diversity in the form of mental disorders, as well as inclusion in the classroom.
Dag Håkon Haneberg
PhD Candidate
Dag Håkon Haneberg is a former NTNU School of Entrepreneurship student who graduated in 2015. In February 2016, he started his doctoral work and was from the beginning involved in Engage. The focus of Dag Håkon’s PhD is on outcomes of venture creation programs beyond new ventures. Dag Håkon is also involved in other entrepreneurship initiatives at NTNU such as Spark, FRAM and DRIV. Dag Håkon holds a MSc. (Sivilingeniør) in Nanotechnology from 2011.
Elli Verhulst
Researcher & Supervisor
Elli Verhulst is associate professor in Experts in teamwork (EiT) at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT), NTNU. Prior to this, Elli worked at the University of Cambridge, UK and University of Antwerp, Belgium. Her research interests include design thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship, sustainability, circular economy, systems thinking and interdisciplinary teamwork. Experience includes research, teaching in higher education and consultancy work. Elli is involved in different international projects. Her international work focuses particularly on the integration of sustainability in industry and higher education.
Faculty of Economics and Management
Eirik Medbø
Innovation Manager
Eirik Medbø graduated with a MSc from the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship in 2013. He co-founded the company AssiTech in 2012, developing a “walker for the stairs”, a new way to help elderly and people with reduced mobility to stay independent in their homes. He has also experience with mentoring of entrepreneurs from initiatives like Spark and Take-Off. Eirik works with both Engage and the NTNU Energy Transition Initiative to foster innovation in the interface between students, researchers and external industry or public partners.
Even Larsen
Coordinator & Teacher
Even Larsen is a teacher by profession with a Master of Science in entrepreneurship from NTNU School of Entrepreneurship. Even has worked 4 years as an entrepreneur as the founder of the Norwegian start-up Morpho Solar, and co-foundeder of the American start-up One Earth Designs. Both these start-ups worked with solar energy and solar thermal storage. Even is today an assitant professor at NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, where he teaches idea generation, business development, feasibility studies and negotiation.
Gunn-Berit Sæter
PhD Candidate
Gunn-Berit Sæter is a registered nurse with a Master of Science in entrepreneurship. After graduating from NTNU School of Entrepreneurship in 2015, she worked as a project manager in the Norwegian Cancer Society for two years, creating a new volunteer home aid service for cancer patients and their families. She began working on her PhD in August 2017 and will be researching entrepreneurship education for nursing students. She is also interested in VCP alumni research. Her research is supervised by Lise Aaboen (NTNU) and Diamanto Politis (Lund University).
Hanne Stokvik
Associate Professor
Hanne Stokvik holds a Msc in Management from HHB from 2010 and started a PhD in innovation in 2010. She is a graduated physioterapist and has a background from art and film. Her reaserch intrests are innovation processes, knowledge management and strategic entreprenurship. Hanne is a part of the Engage team at Nord, working on the new “engage course” and responsible for the crisis and change management course, and a course in strategy.
Heikki Sjöman
PhD Candidate
The research of Heikki Sjöman focuses on prototyping and design thinking in product development, especially in data-driven products and systems. He is also one the contact points for CERN collaboration and a member of TrollLABS early stage product development laboratory.
Inger Wassmo
PhD Candidate
Karolina Lesniak is a PhD candidate at Engage since August 2017. In her research she focuses on entrepreneurship education in engineering studies, with strongest interest on how the type of university influences the education delivered to students and learning processes among engineering students. Karolina has two Master degrees: from interdisciplinary cultural studies, and entrepreneurship and innovation. She also worked with market research, and with startups in Trondheim region.
Iselin Kristine Mauseth
PhD Candidate
Iselin K. Mauseth has a MSc Business from Nord University with a specialization within entrepreneurship and innovation management. She started as a PhD candidate at Engage, Nord University in August 2017. Her research focus on Venture Creation Programs, more specifically how the program influence the venture creation process, both the team and business development process.
Karin Wigger
Researcher
Karin Wigger is a researcher at Nord University Business School. Karin is in particular interested in Strategic Entrepreneurship, Rural Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability -with a focus on the following industries; tourism, fish farming and maritime industry and in the context of the Circumpolar North. In her PhD dissertation, she studied resource mobilization for entrepreneurship in Nordic peripheries. As part of the Engage team, Karin is mainly working on the following projects; ‘development of entrepreneurial mindset’, ‘Engage Sustainability’ and developing new and existing courses at Nord University.
Karolina Lesniak
PhD Candidate
Karolina Lesniak is a PhD candidate at Engage since August 2017. In her research she focuses on entrepreneurship education in engineering studies, with strongest interest on how the type of university influences the education delivered to students and learning processes among engineering students. Karolina has two Master degrees: from interdisciplinary cultural studies, and entrepreneurship and innovation. She also worked with market research, and with startups in Trondheim region.
Kristoffer Slåttsveen
PhD Candidate
PhD candidate with TrollLABS researching education/training of creative confidence/self-efficacy. He has background from product-development as a mechanical engineer, and teaches mechatronics to mechanical engineering students. How can we teach a creative, constructive and reflective mindset?
Lisbeth Bjerva
Project Manager
Innovation, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, internationalization process, business development and network.
Lise Aaboen
Associate Professor
Lise Aaboen is associate professor of technology-based entrepreneurship at NTNU. Her research interests include incubators, new technology-based firms, entrepreneurship education and early customer relationships. She has published in a range of journals, including Technovation, Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management.
Marianne Arntzen
Assistant professor
Marianne Arntzen holds a MSc in business from Nord University Business School from 2011, and started as a Phd in Entrepreneurship in 2012. Her research topic in the thesis is the financing process of new technology based firms. Her research interests include entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial cognition and behavior. She has also been involved in projects on business incubators and their firms. Today, Marianne works as an assistant professor and is part of the Engage team at Nord. She is responsible for a new “Engage course” at the Business school called Innovation and Change processes.
Matthew Lynch
PhD Candidate
Matthew Lynch is a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on entrepreneurial mindset, and what separates those entrepreneurs who are successful from those who get stuck in the process of planning. He teaches at the University College of Østfold and has had several start-ups.
Oleksandra Bieliei
PhD Candidate
Oleksandra Bieliei is a PhD candidate at Engage, NTNU from November 2017. Her research focuses on Venture Creation Programs, more specifically exploring how do skills acquired through VCP shape the commercialisation process of student business ideas/ventures. Previously, she was working with technology based health tech startup for 5 years. She holds master in Business Creation and Entrepreneurship from the Arctic University of Norway, UiT.
Torgeir Aadland
PhD Candidate
Torgeir Aadland is a former NTNU School of Entrepreneurship student who graduated in 2015. In the fall the same year, he started his doctoral work and was from the beginning involved in Engage. The focus of Torgeir’s PhD is on assessment of entrepreneurship educations. Torgeir is also a member of Engage’s management board, as a representative for the PhD students.
Sigrid Westad Brandshaug
PhD Candidate
Sigrid W. Brandshaug started as a PhD candidate at Engage, NTNU in December 2017. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship eduction, and how student teams handle challenges in action learning. After graduating from a master in teaching and counselling in 2011, she worked 7 years as a lecturer and facilitator in the interdisciplinary course Experts in Teamwork at NTNU.
Marius Tuft Mathisen
Associate Professor II
Marius was one of the first students to graduate from NTNU School of Entrepreneurship back in 2007, and later also completed is PhD after several years working as an entrepreneur, consultant and manager. He was involved in the first initiatives to establish a center of excellence in entrepreneurship education at NTNU, which later became Engage. Currently he teaches and mentors students and startups at NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, and is involved in research activities at Engage. His research is focused on the commercialization of knowledge and research results from universities, and how students can play an important part of this process.
Solvi Solvoll
Associate Professor
Sølvi Solvoll is associate professor at Nord University Business School. Her main research interest is the new venture creation process, as well as entrepreneurs’ decision making, learning and ecosystem. Her PhD explored new venture creation in the tourism industry through the theoretical lenses of effectuation and causation. She has started two companies and worked as a consultant before taking her PhD. She has also worked several years at Nordland Research Institute. She currently works on projects to promote industry-student collaborations at Engage.
Einar Rasmussen
Researcher & Supervisor
Einar Rasmussen is Professor of Technology Management and Head of the Division of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Nord University Business School, Norway. He has been visiting scholar at University of Nottingham, University of Strathclyde, University of Twente and University of Bologna. His main research interests are entrepreneurial processes, academic entrepreneurship and university-industry technology transfer. He has managed several research and development projects funded by research councils, ministries and government agencies. He publish regularly in international journals such as Journal of Management Studies, Academcy of Management Perspectives, Journal of Business Research, Research Policy, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Regional Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Technology Transfer and Technovation.
Øystein Widding
Center Leader
Øystein Widding is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management and Adjunct Professor at Nord University Business School. His research field is within commercialization of technology, more specific entrepreneurs as knowledge managers, topics related to business angels, venture capital, growth and spin outs from universities. Professor Widding has a Dr.oecon and Cand.merc from Nord University, and a Cand.mag degree from Lillehammer University College. Widding is one of the founders and coordinator of the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, and has several years of experience in leading positions, both as a military officer (Lt.) and CEO in private sector. He has founded several companies, has experience as a Business Angel, and has a broad experience from executive boards.
Roger Sørheim
Research Director
Roger Sørheim is Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, and Adjunct Professor at Nord University Business School. His main research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurship education. Roger is one of the founders of the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship.
Frode Halvorsen
Center Coordinator
Frode Halvorsen is the centre coordinator for Engage, and is mostly involved in the operational side of the centre, including project management for several projects and contact with external partners. He has a background as an entrepreneur from the creative industry sector, and has worked with the innovation and entrepreneurship community in mid-Norway for several years. His academic background is as a natural science teacher and a master of management degree in strategy and business development.
Ela Sjølie
Leader WP1
Ela Sjølie is associate professor in Experts in teamwork (EiT) in the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT). Her research interests include student learning in higher education, organisational learning and practice theory. Experience includes research and project management, teaching in school and higher education, and software development. Ela is involved in several international projects and networks. Her international work focuses particularly on practice theory and action research.
Martin Steinert
Leader WP2
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Erlend Dehlin
Associate Professor
Erlend Dehlin is Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology/School of entrepreneurship. Erlend earned his PhD from studying the significance of improvisation in organizing, and has publications within organisation and management theory, educational leadership, knowledge management, innovation and project management. In both his consultancy and research practice Erlend works from the grounds of practice theory, and his current research is concerned with the role of co-determination, autonomy and organizational aesthetics with a particular interest in entrepreneurship and venture creation programs.
Faculty of Economics and Management
Gry Alsos
Leader WP4
Gry Alsos is professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Nord University Business School. Her research interests include entrepreneurial behavior and new venture start-up processes, entrepreneurship policy, as well as family and gender perspectives to entrepreneurship. She teaches entrepreneurship and supervises at master and PhD levels. Gry is member of the management team of Engage, and coordinates Engage-related activities at Nord University.
Kari Djupdal
Leader WP5
Kari Djupdal, PhD, is an analyst, researcher and a member of the management team of Engage. She has broad experience with quantitative research methods and received her PhD from Nord University in 2013. Her research interest include sustainable entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial mindset and small firm performance.
Bjørg Riibe Ramskjell
Project Leader
Torgeir Adland
PhD student
Marius Tuft Mathisen
Associate Professor II
Where you can find us
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Here are the different places where you can find us.
Sentralbygg II, 5th floor
Institutt for Industriell Økonomi og Teknologiledelse
Bodø Campus
Handelshøyskolen i Bodø
Gamle Fysikk, 3rd floor
Gamle Fysikk, 3rd floor
Verkstedtekniske Laboratorier
Richard Birkelands vei 2B
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