There are too few start-up companies spinning out from students at the educational institutions in the Oslo region. The University of Oslo, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, BI Norwegian Business School, Kristiania University College, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and Startuplab will do something about this.
With support from Innovation Norway funding scheme STUD-ENT entrepreneurship culture, they are establishing a new innovation programme that will get students interested in starting companies.
– Despite a strong innovation ecosystem in Oslo, with incubators, accelerators and clusters, few new companies spin out of the universities and colleges in the region. In the UiO Growth House we see that the most innovative universities in the world such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Oxford, innovation and start-ups are part of the culture. In Oslo, we do not have this culture – yet, says Hilde Nebb, director at the innovation unit at UiO the UiO Growth House.
UiO's vice-rector for research and innovation Per Morten Sandset is very excited about the new programme.
– The solution to many of our societal challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration. I strongly believe that collaboration across institutions with different professional profiles will give us better solutions than if we work on this separately. It is also pleasing that we are putting in place a new programme which means that we are strengthening our work to get the innovation mindset in place already at student level, says Sandset.
Also Innovation Norway, which has established the new funding scheme STUD-ENT entrepreneurial culture, believes that the collaborative project will make a difference for the Oslo region.
– Through the STUD-ENT programme, Innovation Norway sees how many talented and ambitious student entrepreneurs come from Norwegian universities and colleges. But we need more. In Norway, we are better at creating knowledge from money than the other way around. To succeed in the transformation of the Norwegian economy, we need both students and researchers who create and develop their own companies. Therefore, universities and colleges must continue their efforts to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship. We are very happy to be able to contribute to strengthening the work with student entrepreneurship and contribute to increased cooperation throughout the region, says H?kon Haugli, CEO of Innovation Norway.
Focus on idea development and knowledge of entrepreneurship
In the innovation programme they will work on topics that concern the students such as climate, technology, student life, demography and health. The students themselves define the projects and work on idea development through using Design Thinking – a method in which new solutions are developed by putting the users and their needs at the centre. The educational institutions will contribute with guidance and teaching around important topics throughout a year where the aim is for them to start a company.
The marketing of the new programme will start beginning of 2024. In March, the student teams will work on idea development. After this, some of them will be selected to receive support to work further with their ideas.
Five years' plan
The collaborative project has received NOK 900,000 from Innovation Norway for the first year of operation and will be continued for five years with funding from the educational institutions involved. Success is to be measured in the number of applications to Innovation Norway's STUD-ENT programme, the number of companies and their longevity as well as the proportion of women in management.
Senior innovation adviser Nicolay Bérard-Andersen, who is responsible for the student innovation initiatives in the UiO Growth House, is er initiator and project leader.
The innovation ecosystem and students well involved
In addition to the partners in the project, the incubators Sharelab, Aleap and Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator also contribute. At UiO, the UiO Growth House has involved several student associations: the Student Association for Pharmaceutical Innovation, the Student Association for Medical Innovation and UiO Mikro: the association for robotics and intelligent systems and Insj UiO.
Also collaboration on student fund
The academic partners in the project are the same who run the Student entrepreneurship fund in Oslo (SEFiO) where students can apply for NOK 25,000 in support to develop innovative ideas.
The new collaborative project was applied for under the name KICK-START STUD-ENT: Strengthening the student culture in the Oslo region. The first task now is to find a final name for the innovation programme.