The Life Science Growth House, the University of Oslo’s new innovation unit for life sciences, health and technology, will launch next week. The Growth House is an inter-faculty organisational unit that has been established through a reciprocal, equal collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine (MED) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (MN).
With the launch, the Growth House will open its doors to students, researchers and all other employees. In order to succeed, the Growth House is seeking to establish close, interactive collaborations with departments and faculties internally at the University of Oslo and also with businesses, clusters, incubators, accelerators and the Technology Transfer Office, Inven2, as well as other external stakeholders in the surrounding innovation ecosystem.
- Register to attend the launch event
- Visit the Life Science Growth House web page to learn more about our services
The establishment of the Life Science Growth House also marks a new chapter for me. I have accepted the position of Director of Innovation at the Growth House. I will bring with me everything I have learned as a student, researcher and professor and through my 11 years in the Office of the Dean at MED, eight of which have been as the Dean of Research and most recently as the Vice-Dean of Innovation and Internationalisation.
I look forward to continuing to develop knowledge, expertise and a culture that fosters innovation and commercialisation for students and researchers, so that more research ideas can be matured and more knowledge can be applied.
Open door policy with low-threshold services for researchers and students
The Life Science Growth House will stimulate the development of ideas and help researchers and students to mature innovative ideas at an early stage. We will do this by being a centre of excellence with an open door policy, where we will offer tailored innovation guidance, seed funding, mentoring, internships, meeting venues, courses and seminars.
The Growth House will be based in the Oslo Science Park until the new Life Sciences building is complete. Researchers, students, managers and administrative staff from the departments and the Faculty are welcome to visit us from 18 February. We are also happy to come out to see you!
The services established by the innovation unit will be available to researchers and students across the entire University, as well as researchers at Oslo University Hospital and Akershus University Hospital.
We will facilitate increased levels of innovation to ensure that we further develop more ideas than is currently the case. We are now entering a new era in terms of how the University of Oslo and its faculties manage the responsibility of ensuring that research is applied and benefits society.
Thank you for your outstanding collaboration
I would like to thank the researchers and other employees at the Faculty of Medicine for their excellent collaboration so far. In particular, I would like to mention the stimulating partnership I have had with the research communities throughout my period in the Office of the Dean.
I would also like to mention the inspirational work on career development for young researchers through the establishment of the Health Innovator School and the transnational EU programme, Scientia Fellows I and II, and I look forward to continued collaboration with you and the Faculty in relation to these programmes.