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Life sciences: New innovation services for researchers and students

Do you have an innovation idea in life sciences, or are you wondering if you have an idea? Contact the Life Science Growth House to get access to counselling, seed funding, mentors and meeting places and more to get started on your innovation process.

 

Overview innovaton services: counselling, seed funding, meeting places, innovation mentor programme, student internship

The Life Science Growth House – the new innovation unit at the University of Oslo – will help researchers and students to mature early-stage ideas. We provide tailored counselling, seed funding, meeting places, innovation mentor programme, student internship and more. View a larger version of the image.

Note that we have changed our name to UiO Growth House. Articles written before 2023 use the old name Life Science Growth House.

The Life Science Growth House is an open door with low-threshold services for researchers and students. Please read about our services below and then send an e-mail to innovation@lifesciencegrowthhouse.uio.no. Requests are read continuously by our innovation advisers. They will normally get back to you within two working days. All employees in the growth house have a duty of confidentiality.

Innovation services

Tailored counselling

When you contact us, our innovation advisers will give you counselling based on your needs.

For example

  • assess the maturity and relevance of your idea; whether counselling from mentors or others can be useful for the project; your thoughts on the way forward and more
  • whether your project can benefit from seed funding from us, and how the funding might be used
  • whether you need support to apply for external funding to mature your idea
  • whether you may benefit from collaborating with others in our innovation ecosystem. We will help you get in touch with relevant businesses and other actors that your project may benefit from.
  • which of our meeting places, seminars and competence courses are useful for you to attend

Funding

Student funding

We may reimburse costs up to 10 000 NOK for innovation activities for students.

Seed funding I – for researchers and students

Up to 50 000 NOK, may be used on for example

? consulting assistance ? expenses for key experiments to get ahead with the idea ? purchase of services externally/ internally for experiments/analyses etc. ? purchase of services and courses from partners in our innovation ecosystem ? mentor (not mandatory), the Life Science Growth House may find a suitable mentor

Seed funding II – for researchers and students

Up to 200 000 NOK, may be used on for example

? the services mentioned for seed funding I ? mentor (mandatory), the Life Science Growth House will find a suitable mentor for you

Innovation mentor programme for researchers

We believe that the development of innovation projects best takes place in collaboration with people who have knowledge, experience, and networks within your area. The Life Science Growth House will find a suitable mentor for you. You may get a mentor without being allocated seed funding.

Internship programme for students

Together with student associations, we facilitate meetings between life science students and companies which can offer summer jobs. In 2022 we also cover fifty percent of the salary for a certain number of students in small and medium-sized companies. The deadline for attending the internship programme in 2022 has passed. Information about how you may attend the programme in 2023, will be out fall 2022.

Meeting places

We will arrange innovation hangouts four times per year. This is an informal meeting place where students and researchers from UiO may interact with actors from the public sector, hospitals, companies, mentors, business clusters and incubators in our innovation ecosystem. We will offer inspirational talks, talks from role models, matchmaking, food and beverage and mingling.

We have planned the following hangouts spring 2022 – save the dates!

In the fall 2022 we will host innovation hangout #3 in collaboration with The Life Science Cluster and innovation hangout #4 in collaboration with Norway Health Tech.

Other meeting places and courses are developed when needed.

The innovation process and interaction with the innovation ecosystem

Illustration possible steps innovation process.
The illustration shows how an innovation process may proceed. You may need help identifying ideas and needs; or you may need help protecting the idea or developing and testing the concept. All of these are dynamic processes that help you mature and improve your idea over time. Eventually, you may be ready to build a business plan and possibly business development and growth. The duration of the whole process, varies greatly and depends largely on the type of project. It can take from a few months to many years. For example, developing an app can take months, while it may take many years to develop a new drug. View a larger version of the image.

The Life Science Growth House interacts with the entire innovation ecosystem, including the technology transfer office Inven2, business clusters, companies, and incubators. We will utilize the expertise of the innovation ecosystem in the right way at the right time to help you in the best possible way to mature your innovation ideas so that you can move forward in the innovation process.

The actors in the innovation ecosystem placed in a subway map.
The actors in the innovation ecosystem for life sciences in Oslo. View a larger version of the image.
The Life Science Growth House is an open door for students at the University of Oslo (UiO); researcher at UiO, Oslo University Hospital and Akershus University Hospital; leaders and administrative staff at UiO who support innovative researchers; and existing and new external partners in life sciences, health and technology.
By Norunn K. Torheim
Published Feb. 22, 2022 8:59 AM - Last modified Jan. 5, 2023 8:19 AM