A Budget for Innovation and Knowledge

/in , , /by

The Government of Norway launched their State Budget on October 8th. Overall, we are very pleased with the Government’s will for innovation and knowledge.

“New knowledge and innovation is crucial in order to create the companies of tomorrow and to ensure secure jobs in Norway. We therefore invest in industry-driven research and innovation and give nearly MNOK 300 to strengthen the competitiveness of Norwegian industry”, says Minister of Trade and Industry Monica Mæland in realtion the the launch of the State Budget 2015.


Overall very satisfied
Oslo Cancer Cluster and Nansen Neuroscience Network have analyzed the budget together and are overall very satisfied with the proposals for 2015.

Ketil Widerberg, General Manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster says: “We are very satisfied that the Minister of Trade and Industry shows such a will to invest in industry-driven research. They have in total given more than MNOK 300 to industry-driven research – which is a substantial increase. However, we are dissatisfied that no new seed-funds were established. It is a fact that it is hard to get private investments in the biotech sector if the state is not willing to contribute.”

Leif Rune Skymoen, CEO of Nansen Neuroscience Network says: “The Nobel Prize to Edvard and May Britt Moser shows that it pays off to invest in excellent research. We are very happy to see that the Government agrees on this, and that they will give MNOK 100 to establish research environments of Nobel class. We hope these environments will provide the basis for new treatments for diseases of the brain, like Alzheimer’s and psychiatric disorders.”


Horizon 2020 – a grand possibility
All members of both clusters should be aware of the increased funding from the Norwegian Government’s side to take part in the Horizon2020 program.

“The Government gives 115 MNOK in order to stimulate higher participation in the Horizon2020 program. This is a great chance to receive substantial funding from the EU-program, and we should look at this together and see how we may do this successfully”, says Widerberg and Skymoen.


The most important points in the State Budget 2015

  •  120 MNOK more to Skattefunn: You may get up to 6.6 MNOK in tax relief.
    This is an increase from 4,4 MNOK in 2013.
  • Increase of MNOK 70 in the BIA program in the Norwegian Research Council.
    BIA stands for User-driven research-based Innovation and is an important funding scheme for biotech companies.
  •  Increase of 20 MNOK in the FORNY program in the Norwegian Research Council.
    This funding is for verification, and is important to commercialize research.
  • Increase of 110 MNOK in establishment support from Innovation Norway.
  • 115 MNOK to increased Norwegian participation in European research collaborations
  • 100 MNOK to Norwegian word-leading research environments
  • MNOK to free project support from the Research Council of Norway