Despite heavy snowfall, students, researchers, industry leaders, government workers and more, spent their day at Blindern to engage in the discussion of the green and digital transition.
The conference was opened by the Vice Mayor for Finance, Hallstein Bjercke and Minister for Digitalization and Public Governance, Karianne Tung. To succeed with the challenge posed by pro-rector Bj?rn Jamtveit, both of them emphasized the need for partnerships across public sector, industry and academia as essential.
The Norwegian Centre for Trustworthy AI is a great example of just that. Professor Morten D?hlen from UiO illustrated the ambitious goals of the TRUST centre, placing trustworthiness at the core of their work. Senior Advisor Data Science Patrick Blomquist followed up, illustrating how Equinor as an industry partner of TRUST is working with industrial AI.
Collaboration with industry to speed-up the transition
Taxation on data, decoupling of economic growth, the government's digitalization strategy, and whether AI is prolonging the oil and gas age ? the panel conversation span across many topics. The three panelists Morten D?hlen, Patrick Blomquist and Minister Karianne Tung took their time to discuss questions from the audience.
? We want to collaborate with Equinor to speed up the transition. Together, we can find the fastest path towards the renewable age, said Morten D?hlen.
You can read more about TRUST's Research, Innovation and Societal Impact here.
Rethinking energy security
One of the key takeaways from the day was the need to rethink energy security. Lars Huemer, professor at the Norwegian Business School (BI), highlighted that true security is found in partnerships where we succeed only if others do, too. – With no trust, there are no partnerships. With no partnerships, we will not be able to reach the sustainable development goals.
Energy security should not be a race, it should rather be a collaboration towards an ecosystem of trust.
Research at the core of innovative energy technologies
A long history of research and development has been important for the success of the three companies, Over Easy Solar, Hystar and Cenate, that provided energetic pitches. In fact, research is still at the core of their activities.
Trygve Mongstad, CEO of Over Easy Solar argued that in Norway, there is generally a good system for developing technology at the early stages of the technological readiness level (TRL). However, it is the stages beyond commercialization that are the most challenging.
Need for building a European value chain
In Norway, renewables are competing against an economic system that is highly intertwined with the oil and gas sector, allocating resources, money and people to this existing industry. This is a challenge for renewables, argued Martin Kirkengen, CTO of Cenate. To overcome this challenge, we need a long-term build up of a European value chain for renewable energy technologies.
Furthermore, the panel highlighted the need for private capital as part of the solution to solve this challenge.
? We cannot expect a mature market for renewable energy technologies to appear overnight. We need to bring the industry along to succeed and we need to lay the foundation so that we can play a role in these industries when it matures, said Amalie Melsom, Head of Investor Relations & Strategy in Hystar.
Cities, buildings and transport as test beds for local solutions
Cities play a crucial role for reaching our climate neutrality goals for 2050. Relatedly, cities can function as a test bed for applying local solutions that can help us on the way towards climate neutrality.
In 2025, the City of Oslo received the Bloomberg Philanthropies Local Leaders Climate Awards for its pioneering work in making the heavy transport emission-free. Astrid Landstad, Climate and energy advisor in the City of Oslo, spoke of the policies and steering tools they established to make this possible.
For cities to function as test beds, data is essential. The non-profit infrastructure platform, Smart Building Hub owned by Sintef, illustrates one such initiative that gathers building data from thousands of buildings. The data is publicly available for research and innovation, shared Kamilla Andersen, research scientist from Sintef Community and project leader of Smart Building Hub.
Trust, collaboration and research at the centre
Throughout the day, we heard that trust and collaboration is essential for ensuring that the digital transformation also remains green. We can also conclude that research is essential to achieve this ambitious goal.
We thank all of those who took the time to attend The Future of Energy is Green and Digital conference, and all of those who partook in making it a success. It is up to all of us to ensure that the future of energy is both green and sustainable.
The presentations from the conference is now available in the conference program here.