Solheim is associate professor and head of the Stavanger Centre for Innovation Research, at the University of Stavanger business school.
Solheim is an engaged academic and communicator. She is Associate Professor and Head of the Stavanger Centre for Innovation Research, UiS Business School, and a public speaker on diversity and innovation. Solheim carries out research on diversity and innovation, combining insights from organizational theory, innovation studies and economic geography. She is particularly interested in understanding how innovation is inspired when a variety of diverse knowledge intersect, and the contextual factors affecting this association. Solheim has studied the nexus between various forms of diversity and different types of innovation and has particularly focused on the role of foreign-born workers and innovation & export, experience-based and educational diversity and innovation, and diversity management.

Solheim is actively engaged in the public debate on migration, diversity and innovation-related issues in Norway and is invited to speak at national diversity conferences as well as to national policy makers, political spheres and other institutions. She has been involved in several national and international research and consultancy projects as lead, member and as expert advisor. Solheim is Regional Studies Association (RSA) Ambassador to Norway, member of the prestigious Academy of Young Researchers in Norway.

‍