Eva S. Dugstad is our new competence broker for Oslo-based companies. Photo: Stig Jarnes/ Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Meet our new competence broker

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Picture of Eva S. Dugstad in a black jacket and white blouse, smiling.

Eva S. Dugstad is our new research and industry facilitator aka competence broker for Oslo-based companies.

A competence broker (from the Norwegian word kompetansemegler) is an agent for connecting research and industry, as well as a conveyor of expertise. Her goal is to strengthen the research-based business development in Oslo and to mobilise more research-based innovation in the innovation districts of Oslo.

The service is funded by the City of Oslo and is free of charge.

Experienced advisor

Eva S. Dugstad is a special advisor in Oslo Cancer Cluster and director for business development in Radforsk, as well as the general manager in Nucligen – a company that develops radiopharmaceuticals. For many years, Dugstad was the CEO of the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), in charge of Norway’s only nuclear reactors.

“My focus as a competence broker in Oslo is to establish projects that can face long-term challenges in industry development, make the green transformation and take advantage of the specific benefits of the Oslo region. My field of expertise is within health and life sciences, with focus on digitalisation and digital transformation,” said Eva S. Dugstad.

The service

Dugstad knows what it takes to build bridges between research and industry. Her keen eye spots opportunities for businesses and she knows what Norwegian academia looks for in industry partners.

“As a competence broker, I help businesses that want to apply for funding find the correct schemes. I can then make sure they cover the necessary requirements in the application,” Dugstad explained.

However, there is more to the service than purely application support.

“If a business has a good, innovative idea, they can run it by me, and I will quickly see if it is indeed research or development. Ideas that are purely about development, without the research component, will not receive funding. I can also connect businesses to the right partners, when there is a need for collaboration”, said Dugstad.

Companies in Oslo with research-based ideas are welcome to reach out to Dugstad, or one of her four colleagues in Oslo.

20 million by 20 October

The Regional Research Funds’ main projects are called regional innovation projects. Currently, there are NOK 20 million on the table and the application deadline is 20 October 2021. Each project can apply for NOK 1-3 million.

The most important ingredient in a successful application is good research. A research partner is not required, but many of the applicants will benefit from a partner, according to the Regional Research Funds.

Eva S. Dugstad explained how the scheme works:

“Companies in both the private and public sector can apply to this scheme. One goal is to strengthen the ties between research and development organisations and private businesses – and ensure qualified participation in research and innovation both nationally and in the EU.”

Innovation districts

Three innovation districts in Oslo are also involved in the competence broker service. They are called Innovasjonsdistrikt Hovinbyen, Innovasjonsdistrikt Sentrum and Oslo Science City. The competence brokers look to the innovation districts to find partners and funding schemes.

Oslo Science City is the first innovation district in Norway, including members such as the University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital, South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst RHF), Sintef, and Oslo Cancer Cluster. The district mobilises 7 500 researchers in developing ecosystems for innovation and green transformation, bringing together educational institutions, researchers, the business community, and the public sector.

“An innovation district supports the work of the competence brokers by laying the groundwork for effective partnerships between researchers and businesses”, said Christine Wergeland Sørbye, CEO Oslo Science City.

Within health and life science, she sees the need for stronger collaborations instead of funding competitions.

“In Norway, we find that leading experts must often compete with one another for research funding or support to commercialize their ideas. Instead, there should be a greater focus on incentives that stimulate interdisciplinary cooperation. If research institutes, the hospital, and other healthcare providers, startups, established businesses, and the health authorities all work together, we will be better positioned to develop leading solutions that can compete on a global scale”, said Wergeland Sørbye.

Read more

The 10th edition of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase was arranged as a virtual event.

Celebrating the 10th International Cancer Cluster Showcase

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ICCS 2021

ICCS 2021 highlighted success stories and promising newcomers in oncology innovation.

The 10th edition of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase (ICCS) was presented this week as a satellite event to BIODigital. More than 260 representatives from the global oncology milieu signed up to learn about novel technologies and promising treatment approaches for combating cancer.

The digital event gathered oncology innovation hubs from North America and Europe for the 10th time. Since the first showcase at the Whitehead Institute in 2012, many of the previous presenters have achieved impressive milestones. Seven of these companies joined again this year and presented their success stories and learnings. They were accompanied by seven emerging companies on their way to become the success stories of tomorrow.

Jutta Heix, Head of International Affairs and Co-Initiator of ICCS, opened the event and invited the participants on a virtual journey along the North American East Coast and Europe, with stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Oxford, Oslo, Bordeaux and Lausanne.

“At each stop of the journey, we presented one success story and one newcomer giving a flavour of the innovation potential residing in our innovation hubs.” Jutta Heix

“To inspire novel collaboration and partnership opportunities, we concluded the event with a networking session. All attendees could meet the presenting companies and the organizing partners in break-out rooms for to discuss and to learn more about the local pipelines,” says Jutta Heix.

Presenting from Norway

The Norwegian travel stop featured two Oslo Cancer Cluster members: Vaccibody as success story and Zelluna Immunotherapy as newcomer. Anders Holm, Chief Operating Officer at Zelluna Immunotherapy, introduced the company’s “off-the-shelf” T-cell receptor (TCR) guided natural killer (NK) cell therapy products for the treatment of multiple solid cancers.

“Being part of the ICCS is a great opportunity to present our story and technology and it enables networking and interaction points with other participants and companies.”
Anders Holm

View Zelluna Immunotherapy’s presentation

We kindly thank the sponsors and partners BIO, DNB and Precision for Medicine for their ongoing support. A special thanks to Andrea Cotton-Berry, Global Head of Strategic Operations, EU, US and APAC at Precision For Medicine, Oncology and Rare Disease, for her welcoming note.

The recordings of all the presentations are available on the event homepage until the end of September 2021.

Contact details and short company profiles of the presenters can be found in the ICCS 2021 event guide.

Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke of plans for research at Oslo Cancer Cluster's annual summer gathering.

Visions for cancer innovation in Norway

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Man in suit looking into camera

Oslo Cancer Cluster gathered the Norwegian oncology community for a mid-year update in June.

Last week, Oslo Cancer Cluster arranged the June Gathering 2021, a digital event which was attended by members, partners and colleagues from the Norwegian oncology community. The event included updates from the organisation, presentations from several prominent speakers and introductions of new members.

Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke at the event about ambitious plans for Norwegian research and praised Oslo Cancer Cluster for giving important input on a Norwegian cancer mission.

“Oslo Cancer Cluster has already suggested Norway launch a cancer mission, with a specific goal of reducing the time from when clinical trials with new drugs start, to when those drugs can be part of standard patient treatment in hospitals.” Henrik Asheim

Watch the entire speech here:

Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster, echoed the importance of putting Norway on the cancer map internationally, by using Norwegian advantages.

“We can use our health data to accelerate and move the approval of medicine from an average ten to five years. We can also follow-up patients better and precision medicine enables us to do this. Norway needs its own cancer mission.” Ketil Widerberg

Welcome, new members

The three new members Bio-Me AS, Daiichi-Sankyo and OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University) expressed excitement about joining Oslo Cancer Cluster and looked forward to participating in the organisation’s activities.

Morten Isaksen, Founder and CEO of Bio-Me As, a Norwegian start-up company that is creating better diagnostic tools for microbiome profiling, spoke first.

“The whole concept of the microbiome, the gut bacteria, and how it influences health and how drugs are metabolised are creating a paradigm shift in preventive health and health in general.” Morten Isaksen

The company has created a platform for precision microbiome profiling, which takes the vast knowledge of the microbiome to something that can be used in a clinical setting.

Isaksen was followed by Martin Ahlgren, Medical Drector at Daiichi-Sankyo, a global pharmaceutical company originating from Japan and with European headquarters in Germany. Daiichi-Sankyo has recently also set up a Nordic headquarter in Copenhagen with more than 20 employees.

“We are in the middle of launching our first oncology brand in the Nordic market in collaboration with AstraZeneca.” Martin Ahlgren

The last speaker was Carl Christian Thodesen, Dean at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University).

“We are thinking more about technology and health together: how we can connect what is happening in IT and mechanics with what is happening in health.” Carl Christian Thodesen

The Faculty is working on an exciting initiative to bring artificial intelligence (AI) and product design services together with healthcare and nursing, so that new projects can be launched in the research world.

You can read more about our members by visiting the Membership Overview and learn about our upcoming events in the Event Calendar.

Rapportens forsidebilde illustrerer produksjon. Foto: Menon Economics

Ny rapport: stort potensial for eksport av helseindustri

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Close-up of brown glass bottle filling at production line.Foto: Menon Economics

Helseindustrien er en av Norges største eksportnæringer, med nesten 26 milliarder kroner i eksportinntekter i 2020. Med riktige rammebetingelser kan helsenæringen bli en betydelig eksportnæring for Norge. ­Det viser en ny rapport.

Rapporten “Strategier for økt produksjon og eksport av norsk helseindustri” er klar i sine anbefalinger: Det er fire nøkkeltiltak som norske myndigheter og helseindustrien sammen må sette i verk for at flere selskaper skal kunne produsere i Norge og øke eksporten. Disse tiltakene er:

  1. Gjøre kliniske studier mer attraktive
  2. Styrke hjemmemarkedet
  3. Bedre tilgang på nødvendig kompetanse
  4. Avlaste risikoen ved å investere i produksjon

Her kan du lese den nye rapporten.

Rapporten ble lansert digitalt 19. mai 2021.

Opptak av lanseringen kan du se her.

Utvikler kunnskapsgrunnlag

Rapporten er et samarbeid mellom flere aktører som jobber for norske bedrifter og oppstartsselskaper.

 

Logosky som viser aktørene bak rapporten: Aleap, Eksportkreditt Norge, Innovasjon Norge, Inven2, Legemiddelindustrien (LMI), LO, NHO, Norway Health Tech, Norwegian Smart Care Cluster, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Siva og The Life Science Cluster.

Bak rapporten står Aleap, Eksportkreditt Norge, Innovasjon Norge, Inven2, Legemiddelindustrien (LMI), LO, NHO, Norway Health Tech, Norwegian Smart Care Cluster, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Siva og The Life Science Cluster.

 

– Sammen ønsker vi å utvikle et kunnskapsgrunnlag for å videreutvikle og skalere norsk helsenæring for økt eksport. Dette grunnlaget har vi samlet i seks år, gjennom rapporter om Helsenæringens verdi av Menon Economics, sier Ketil Widerberg, daglig leder i Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Tidligere artikler om rapporter i denne serien:

Eksportutfordringen

Norsk helseindustri hadde en samlet omsetning på 53,6 milliarder kroner i 2019. De siste ti årene har næringen hatt en vekst på over 90 prosent. Denne veksten er betydelig høyere enn for norsk privat næringsliv i samme periode.

Bransjene i helseindustrien er i rapporten delt inn i digital helse, legemidler og medisinsk utstyr. De møter liknende utfordringer i utlandet.

Bedriftene har svart på hva som begrenser mulighetene for å øke inntektene fra eksportmarkedene.

– Det oppsummerende svaret er markedsapparat – i form av representasjon  og et distribusjons- og salgsapparat i et internasjonalt marked, forklarte Erik Jakobsen fra Menon Economics under lanseringen.

Virkemidler for særegne behov

Rapporten viser at virkemiddelapparatets ordninger ikke er utformet og tilpasset helseindustriens behov.

Få virkemidler er tiltenkt skalering, som for eksempel støtte til investeringer i produksjonskapasitet, kompetanse eller markedsapparat. Rapporten viser også at virkemidlene for eksport er begrenset.

– Det vi vet, er at vi må snu virkemiddelapparatene våre og gjøre dem mer fokusert på ulike næringer som trenger ulikt virkemiddelapparat, sa Trine Skei Grande (V) under lanseringen av rapporten.

Skei Grande har jobbet med næringsspørsmål i Stortinget i en årrekke, og sitter nå i Utenrikskomiteen.

Fordeler og ulemper i Norge

Rapporten viser at norske bedrifter i helseindustrien med produksjon i Norge samlet sett har hatt en høyere omsetningsvekst de siste ti årene enn bedrifter som ikke har hatt produksjon i Norge.

God kvalitet og godt samarbeid med forskningsinstitusjoner er et viktig fortrinn som bedriftene med produksjon i Norge trekker fram. De viser også til klyngene som en fordel med å produsere i Norge.

– Klyngene sitter på kompetansen og nettverkene og bør brukes i større grad for å øke eksport, sa Erik Jakobsen.

Utfordringene ved å legge produksjon av helseindustri til Norge, er høyt kostnadsnivå, et svakt hjemmemarked og fravær av offentlige ordninger for å finansiere risikoavlastning ved utvikling og bygging av produksjonsanlegg.

– Å stimulere hjemmemarkedet styrker konkurransekraft i eksportmarkeder og øker tilgangen på risikokapital, sa Erik Jakobsen.

Rapporten foreslår hvordan flere selskaper skal kunne produsere i Norge og øke eksporten.

Ett av disse forslagene er å øke bevilgninger til Norsk katapult for å sikre nye utlysninger – og få minst ett helserelatert katapultsenter inn i ordningen.

Resten av forslagene i rapporten kan du lese her.

Bildet viser forsiden av rapporten om helseindustrien med medisinglassflasker i produksjon.