The Department of interdisciplinary studies of culture carries on research on gender, and on technology, science and society. The research activities are many and varied. Although there are individual projects, most of the research and the researchers are joined in research groups, investigating either the same phenomena in different ways, or different phenomena in the same way.

The department has seven research groups. Each group has either several sub-groups or administers different projects in the research group. The current research groups are:

• Research group for research on ethnicity and gender
• Research group for research on reproduction and biotechnology
• Research group for research on sexuality, gender, culture
• Research group for research on energy, transport and environment
• Research group for research on medicine, health and biotechnology
• Research group for research on knowledge, ICT and culture
• Research group for studies on design, consumption and culture (IKON)

The majority of the department's research is funded by the Research Council of Norway, and is one of the most efficient departments at NTNU in terms of receiving external funding. As with the master programme, the main emphasis is on cultural changes as a starting point for asking new questions about fields of study that the research groups focuses on.