Strengthening Norway’s innovation ecosystem with UiO Growth House
We are diving into the world of university-driven innovation with a spotlight on the UiO Growth House—the University of Oslo’s innovation unit for Life Sciences, Health, and Technology.
We are joined by Hilde Nebb, Innovation Director of the Growth House, and Norunn K. Torheim, Head of Communications, as they share insights on building a thriving innovation ecosystem, and provide a sneak peek into the upcoming UIIN Nordic Forum in March, where they will be sharing more best practices on industry collaboration.
You can listen to the full interview in our podcast:
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Transcript
Madeline Arkins:
In the past two years or so, we have had the pleasure of working with the University of Oslo and the Growth House as part of our Strategic Partnerships Program and developing the university’s Innovation Action Plan. We are also delighted to be partnering with them again in our upcoming Nordic Forum, which is coming up March 5th and 6th. I’m sure we will hear more about that later on, but we are best to hear about the Growth House and insights on their ecosystem directly from the source.
I’m delighted to have two great speakers from the Growth House today, Hilde Nebb and Norunn K. Torheim. Hilde is the Innovation Director of the Growth House and a Professor at the University of Oslo. She has extensive experience in academic leadership having served as Vice Dean for Innovation and Internationalisation and Deputy Dean of Research at the Faculty of Medicine. Norunn is the Head of Communications, Industry Collaboration and Public Relations at the Growth House. She previously served as Communication Manager at Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board.
Thank you both for joining me today, it is great to see you.
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
You too.
Madeline Arkins:
Maybe to kick us off, Hilde, I’d love you to set the scene a little bit for those who are unfamiliar with the Growth House. Can you tell us about its mission and how it supports innovation and collaboration?
Hilde Nebb:
Thank you for inviting us. We are very much looking forward to discussing UiO Growth House with you today. We are the innovation unit for Life Sciences, Health and Technology at the University of Oslo, and our aim is to strengthen the innovation culture among our students and researchers to put more research to use.
What we try to achieve is also in line with what we see the trends in Europe and from recent reports, just to mention the Draghi Report and others that indicate how important international competitive universities are for Europe to boost innovation. A well-functioning innovation ecosystem is very important with focus on innovation culture, innovation capacity, innovation competence, and cooperation with private and public sectors.
To succeed with this at UiO, one of the important moves that we have made is our physical location in Oslo Science Park. A meeting place and a community with more than 300 companies, from business incubators, clusters, and UiO’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO).
The closeness to this innovation ecosystem promotes an interactive collaboration, gives us an open door in and out to external collaborators. With that, we build bridges between our research environments and relevant partners.
So, how do we do this? We have developed what we call the UiO Growth House Model: We equip students and researchers with competencies, an innovative mindset and tools. Most importantly, we provide low-threshold innovation services, we contribute to idea stimulation to mature early-stage ideas by tailored guidance, seed funding and contact with mentors from the innovation ecosystem. We offer training programs and boot camps, where we draw on expertise from outside, teaching the researchers how to build, develop and take their ideas to the market.
Our Innovation Hangout fulfils a long-awaited role, namely a meeting place between academia, start-ups, and industry. Also, to strengthen the innovation culture among our students, different student programs are key.
Madeline Arkins:
We are ourselves based in Amsterdam Science Park, so we also know the importance of that kind of proximity when it comes to collaboration. Low-threshold services are key in order to maximise the growth and attraction of the Science Park’s people to the Growth House, which is maybe brings me to my next question for Norunn.
The Growth House collaborates with quite a number of different actors, industry clusters, incubators, TTOs, etc. From your experience as Head of Communications, how do you ensure that these collaborations can effectively translate research into real world impact?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
We are helping researchers at an early stage of the innovation process, and when our innovation advisor gives guidance to the researchers, they also connect them with mentors in the ecosystems around us that help them develop their ideas further.
Our TTO has the same active approach for projects that are more mature, and we collaborate closely with them in the very early stage and the day later. We also collaborate closely with, for example, incubators here in Oslo Science Park: We have a health incubator called Aleap, ShareLab, which is the shared office lab space; and we have Startuplab, which is a hardware lab, so they can help researchers develop the projects even further.
We involve both clusters and incubators when we develop courses. We have meeting places where our researchers and students get the opportunity to interact, build networks, possibly find collaborators to develop their ideas further and come up with new ideas and maybe new projects through collaboration with industry.
From the start three years ago until today, we have around 200 projects in our portfolio that we are working with, and we believe that this approach that we have will materialise into more mature ideas and eventually give more real world impact.
Norunn K. Torheim, Head of Communications at UiO Growth House
Madeline Arkins:
It certainly sounds like it’s a very holistic approach if you are covering both early-stage and later-stage with your service offerings, I think it is pretty novel to do all in one place.
You mentioned in the beginning, Hilde, how fostering an innovation mindset is something that you really want to offer your students. What are some of the strategies that the Growth House has implemented to foster this culture and mindset of innovation within academic and research communities?
Hilde Nebb:
We have established several academic strategic areas that we trust will foster an innovation culture and innovation capacity within the university among our researchers. I will mention three:
First, we have a strategic area that is the innovation tools and services where we support idea stimulation and early-stage ideas in a dynamic collaboration with innovation ecosystem. This of course, strengthens the researcher entrepreneurial mindset and thinking, and also how we take the idea into application.
A second one is the communication, the meeting places and courses where the researchers can develop the skills. A successful example of that is the School of Health Innovation, where the vision is to help young researchers become more entrepreneurial, teaching them how to build, develop and drive ideas to market.
The third one is how to nurture collaboration with the innovation ecosystem. We have already said that the innovation ecosystem around is very important for all of the activities that we are doing. This closeness is very important, and there is one good example of that: The Aleap Bootcamp. This incubator here in Oslo Science Park, and our TTO, Inven2, have a bootcamp where we help the researchers and give them topics within value proposition, regulatory processes, intellectual property strategy, fundraising, organisational governance, and pitching.
These are very good examples of how we are using the innovation ecosystem around in all our activities and also, of course, the Innovation Hangout, a meeting place between academia, start-ups and industry that we have also mentioned earlier.
Madeline Arkins:
Those cross-pollination points are also important. Something that, in my mind, goes hand-in-hand with strategies for fostering innovation is communicating that you are doing that work.
Norunn, maybe you can speak about the communication strategy of the Growth House. How do promote innovation and attract attention and interest from both the academic and industry sides?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
First of all, the communication strategy helps us remember who our most important stakeholders are.
For us, the researchers are the most important, and that includes also young researchers like PhD candidates and postdocs.
Norunn K. Torheim, Head of Communications at UiO Growth House
When it comes to industry, Hilde has already mentioned that it has been a strategic move from us to be in Oslo Science Park, and it’s a huge advantage for us to be here.
We are here with the clusters, incubators and start-ups and working with them regularly, I would say on a daily basis. Many of us are in contact with this and it helps us to develop, for example, the meeting places like the Innovation Hangouts that we have mentioned several times now. It’s relevant for both academia and industry.
We have some huge things coming up for us in September next year. We will move to a new building, called the Life Science Building. It will be Norway’s largest research building, almost 100,000m2 for health and life sciences.
The unit for innovation, public and external relations will be there, and our job would be to open the building to external collaborators. It’s only a couple of hundred meters from there to Oslo Science Park, and one important project that we have these days is to prepare for moving our unit to this building.
This means that we will both work internally with research groups to be closer to researchers and make sure that our services are according to their needs, and also to see how we will work with the external actors when we have moved to this building. How will we collaborate with the ecosystem in Oslo Science Park and the innovation district Oslo Science City, which we are an important part of? Communication is an important tool in everything that we do.
Madeline Arkins:
You mentioned earlier in our conversation the role of mentorship. Something I wanted to get both of your perspectives on is what role does mentorship play in shaping the ability of researchers, as well as students, in taking their innovations forward?
Hilde, I’ll go to you first.
Hilde Nebb:
The mentors from the ecosystem give a tailored guidance for the researchers on how to bring the idea from the very early-stage to the end, and they are brought in from the innovation ecosystem to provide a more global-specific knowledge from the different companies that they can bring into from specific topics into the projects.
That’s how we are using the mentorship on the innovative project for the researchers. We also do the same for the students, whenever it is needed, and we are also helping research projects to get more industry collaborations. This helps strengthen the more specific research projects to get funds from, for example, the EU or the Norwegian Research Council.
Madeline Arkins:
We’re talking about innovation ecosystem and synergies. Are there any successful examples of collaborations that have emerged from the Growth House’s ecosystem that you can share?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
As all our services, these Innovation Hangouts are a low-threshold service, so it’s very easy to attend, “come as you are”. It’s a place where we show our researchers, many of them early in their career, the opportunities for careers in industry, or start-ups, or for collaboration with industry.
We invite external speakers to give what we call Inspirational Talks. Someone very experienced does that, and then we have Role Model Talks from someone young who might have moved to industry or established their own start-up. At least we give the attendees from academia, hospitals, the institute sector and industry the opportunity to talk to each other and build networks.
The feedback that we have gotten from these events is overwhelmingly positive. Like many of the other activities, we do this together with clusters. We connect the researchers and students with employees in the companies that are members of the clusters that we are surrounded by.
This is an evening event that we host maybe three to four times a year and, based on this model, we now organise also an annual innovation conference for the University of Oslo, which is called Science Impact. This year will be the third edition, and we also collaborate with all stakeholders that surround us in Oslo Science Park and Oslo Science City.
Madeline Arkins:
It’s always such a testament to an institution when they can successfully reach out to external stakeholders to be mentors or to be guest speakers for industry talks, because it also acknowledges that not any one institution has all the expertise and all the answers. Having partners who are willing to work with you for the betterment of your students and the region is such a vote of confidence in the work that you do. It’s lovely to hear that you work with so many different and varied stakeholders
Maybe a question for both of you, because we all love to replicate and adapt learnings from one institution to another, what lessons can other academic institutions learn from Oslo’s approach to fostering innovation? Hilde, do you want to take it off?
Hilde Nebb:
It is very easy to reach out to each other at any level due to the closeness.
Having a common goal and knowing what you want to achieve together, in particular when it comes to contributing to building knowledge in the health sciences industry, is also very important.
Hilde Nebb, Innovation Director of UiO Growth House
We have experienced that the business sector is very positive when we reach out to them for collaboration. Another success factor, as we see it, is the interactive collaboration through our meeting places and how they use each other’s strengths to collaborate instead of duplicating activities.
Madeline Arkins:
That collaborate instead of duplicate is an interesting one because I think that, when there is an atmosphere of competition and not support in terms of partnerships or grant funding, that doesn’t lead collaboration or a place where people feel like they can share contacts or what worked for them.
Norunn, do you have anything to add on what can other institutions learn from your approach?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
I just want to emphasise what Hilde said. It’s always very positive when we reach out here in Oslo Science Park. People always want to collaborate and, as Hilde said, it has to be also about working for the same goal. For example, building Norwegian health industry, which we are all into, or we see that Norway needs more green workplaces, or we need to have other income than from oil. This is what we are working together on, all of us.
Hilde Nebb:
As we are very close to the Science Park, and we need each other, they also try to reach out to the university and the academics and bring us into the companies and the closeness of collaboration.
It’s not only we that are building a bridge , they are also building a bridge back to us.
That is something that I feel is mutual, and a very positive, added value of what we are doing. Of course, they are afraid now that we are moving to the Life Science Building, because we are nicely positioned here. But they know, as Norunn said, that we are trying to find out how we can bring with us what we have already established with them here.
Madeline Arkins:
Sounds like a very conscious move that you are doing. I don’t know that I have heard of anyone making such considered steps before a move.
Talking about our upcoming Nordic Forum, which I know you guys will both be involved in do you have any tidbits to share on what attendees might be expected to gain from the forum that’s happening in March?
Hilde Nebb:
I will say that, through the years, we have learned a lot from the UIIN Community. This has been extremely invaluable in establishing the Growth House, and we hope that our Nordic colleagues will see the value of the meeting and find the time to attend the Nordic Forum in Oslo in March.
We hope that we can reach out to each other and learn from each other. It is very important for us to have more contact with others that have that mutual interest too.
Madeline Arkins:
From UIIN side, last year we really expanded our forums, and it was a great success every time, just in seeing the other players and connecting with them. Norunn, do you have anything to add?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
We will focus on collaboration between academia and industry, and we will look at best practices. It is two days, but if anyone wants to come to Oslo the day before or stay for one more day and want to meet us or anyone else in Oslo Science Park or in Oslo, we are willing to help set up meetings and meeting rooms or facilitate this to help give people even better experience when they come here.
Just reach out to us if you want us to help with anything.
Madeline Arkins:
Heard it here first, listeners, open invitation to Oslo. Maybe to round us off a little bit, looking ahead, how do you envision the Growth House evolving in its role to promote this culture of innovation, collaboration and societal impact?
Hilde Nebb:
We have done a lot of great, hard work for these three years. It has been hard building up from scratch, always with the needs of the researchers in mind. We will continue to develop this and trust that we have built a sustainable model for putting more research to use for the benefit of society.
We have tried during today to really point out some very important strategic areas that we are building upon now, and we hope that they are sustainable in the future for us.
Madeline Arkins:
I must say the focus on the needs of researchers is a really lovely thing to add. Considering there has been so much data that shows that academics and researchers can be hesitant to collaborate because they feel their scientific freedom won’t be respected or that they won’t be supported in it.
To hear such a big player as the Growth House say that it comes down to the needs of the researchers both in inducting this research itself, but also in communicating it, is really powerful thing.
As well, Hilde, there is something that you said earlier about the partnerships being mutual and recognising that there is a mutual benefit. Sometimes it is easy to feel like there is one heavy hitter, one bigger player that is gaining more than the other, but if you really start the relationship from the outset, recognising these mutual benefits and mutual advantages, it results in a much longer lasting partnership with a far better foundation for trust and longevity. At least that’s what I hear from this conversation.
Hilde Nebb:
I think you’re right. It is a robust and longstanding collaboration that we try to build.
To make a unit that will succeed, you need this robustness that we are building now, not only at the UiO, but also together with many good collaborators; to be open minded and to reach out our hands to build something new together.
Hilde Nebb, Innovation Director of UiO Growth House
I think that is a good lesson from what we are trying to achieve here.
Madeline Arkins:
Absolutely, and if people are interested in hearing more about robust relationships and innovation, you can hear more about that at our Nordic Forum. You can head to uiin.org/events to get yout tickets. It’s sure to be a very good few days.
We’re just at the end of our time together. Hilde and Noren, thank you so much for the last 30 minutes. Where could people find out more about the Growth House if they want to?
Norunn Kristin Torheim:
They can check our webpage uio.no/growthhouse, and also feel free to email us (Norunn K Torheim, Hilde Nebb).
Madeline Arkins:
Thank you everyone and thank you Hilde and Norunn, once again. Hope you have a good day.
Hilde Nebb:
Thank you very much, Madeline.
Ready for more?
Join us in Oslo on 5-6 March 2025 for this gathering of higher education and industry professionals, and policymakers to benchmark and exchange best practices for impactful university-industry collaborations.
Hosted by UiO Growth House, this 2-day event provides a platform to share and learn best practices in devising collaboration strategies and exploring potential synergies from Nordic collaborations and from shared research and innovation ecosystems. Whether you are a decision-maker, research and innovation manager, academic leader, or corporate innovator, this forum offers insights on actionable strategies that can elevate your external collaborations.
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