Welcome back to a new semester at NTNU. We would like to use this opportunity to inform you about DION in general and the current DION board in particular.
What is DION?
DION is the interest organization for all PhD students, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees at NTNU – so DION is an interest organization for you! All in all, these are around 3000 people spread across all campuses (Trondheim, Gjøvik, Ålesund), faculties and departments. By being a PhD candidate, post.-doc. or another temporary scientific employee at NTNU, you are automatically part of DION.
What can DION do for you?
We represent you!
Firstly, DION is an important link in NTNU’s democratic constitution.
We contribute to debates concerning the precarious situation of PhD students, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees both at the NTNU board as well as at the University Research Committee (forskningsutvalget). We also work closely with labor unions and other networks at NTNU and beyond.
Our second mandate is to create a social and attractive environment for PhD students, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees at NTNU. We are a low-threshold contact point for you, who needs support or help with your process at NTNU. Even though we cannot give legal advice, we can give pointers to what your options are, whenever you feel insecure or stuck during you PhD or post.doc. Whatever the trouble is – issues with your supervisors, your work environment, a kindergarten spot for your children etc. – we will help you as good as we can. Furthermore, we regularly organize informative events on relevant issues, which are aimed to help you to navigate through often opaque and in many ways challenging processes. Common topics include: career development, mental health, parenthood and work-life balance, and other practical issues during employment.
Additionally, we also organize social events as fora for meeting co-workers from all over the world and all over NTNU. These events are fun and an informal and a good way to balance our often solitary work in labs and offices.
We are currently planning: the establishment of a DION choir, an improv workshop with Gibberish, art workshops, skiing, movie nights, the ever so popular board game and Shuffle board nights, and so much more!
DION-sponsored events are usually free or low-price.
Find out about our upcoming events on our Facebook page and through our newsletter.
Who is in the current DION board?
The DION president and board is elected annually. The board consists of eight representatives in total, who are themselves PhDs, Post-Docs or temporary scientific employees.
This year, the board consists of these motivated people, covering broad disciplinary grounds.
Even though there is no representative from Ålesund in this year’s DION board, we continue a close and ever-improving contact to the NTNU campus Ålesund and are aiming for social and professional events in Ålesund in 2019/ 2020 just like on the other campuses.
Contact
If you want to know more about DION and be updated on future events, please keep visiting our website and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Innsida.
And if you want to enter into conversation with us directly, you can also use our email address: post@dion.ntnu.no