In February, the UiO Growth House announced a call with NOK 1.5 million in seed funding to support researchers who want to develop their innovation ideas. The Growth House received 14 applications for seed I where the maximum amount is NOK 50,000 and 19 for seed II where the maximum amount is NOK 200,000.
Of these, 10 and 6 projects have been granted seed funding and will receive a total of NOK 1.5 million. The applications have been assessed by the innovation advisers in the Growth House together with representatives from the incubators Aleap, ShareLab and Startuplab in Oslo Science Park as well as UiO:Life Science's innovation program SPARK Norway.
Health, education, environment, cyber security and music
The projects that have been granted funding, cover a broad range of topics. Most of them are health related. Within cancer there are projects to develop better antibodies for cancer treatment; test cancer treatment on cells to see which patients might benefit from the treatment; and more targeted treatment. Within heart disease there are projects that will contribute to prevention of life-threatening arrhythmia; and development of an app to monitor children with congenital heart disease.
Other health related projects will develop prebiotics from Norwegian medicinal plants; eye drops for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacteria; better methods for assisted reproduction; better flu vaccines; better methods based to map the content of food; and equipment to test metabolism with organ-on-a-chip-technology.
Within education one project will develop better tools for analysing the progress of pupils; and another look into the use of artificial intelligence to provide more adapted mathematics teaching in primary school.
We have also granted support to projects that will develop better and more environmentally friendly production of fertilisers; better methods for encrypting data; and automatic transcription of music recordings.
All who have applied, will be followed up
Both those who have been granted funding and those who did not get funding, will be offered follow-up by the innovation advisers in the UiO Growth House.
'For those who have been granted funding, we will discuss with the researchers how to proceed, including what guidance they need from us at in the UiO Growth House or external mentors so that they can further develop their innovation idea. For some, it's about conducting experiments in the laboratory to get the data they need to show that the idea is viable. For others, it is about buying services in our innovation ecosystem,' says UiO Growth House director Hilde Nebb
'Those who have not been granted funding, are also offered guidance on how they can work further with the project and write better applications, for example how they can explain better what the project is about and why they need support from us or how the budget is set up,' says innovation adviser Ivar Bergland who has been in charge of the evaluation process.
Nebb emphasises that this follow-up is very important.
'Beyond helping individual projects, strengthening the culture of innovation at UiO is our most important task. And when a research group has taken the step and contacted us with a desire to engage in innovation, we have to make sure that they keep at it, even if they have not received seed funding from us through this call. When they have worked on the applications and discussed with our advisers how they can proceed, they can choose to apply on our ongoing call, so it is still possible for them to work further with their innovation idea with support from us.'
Projects that have been granted funding
The UiO Growth House is an internal innovation unit at UiO that helps researchers and students to mature ideas in the early phase. The unit is a collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine (MED) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MN). The unit also receives support from the strategic research area UiO:Life Science and the UiO central administration to distribute seed funding, therefore researchers from all faculties can apply for support from the UiO Growth House. This time, researchers from the Faculty of Humanities (HF) and the Faculty of Educational Sciences (UV) have received support in addition to MED and MN.
Project, applicant, responsible faculty and department/centre at UiO
- Structural epitope mapping of antibodies
Ahmad Ali-Ahmad, MED, Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM) - Personalized rapid ex vivo determination of immunotherapeutic cancer treatment (PREDICT)
Audun Kvalvaag, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Prevention of a life-threatening arrhythmogenic disorder
Bernadin Ndongson Dongmo, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Development of a potent, prebiotic compound from a Norwegian medicinal plant
Emilie Steinbakk Ulriksen, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Eye drops for treatment of antibiotics-resistant ocular surface infections
Gerard Boix Lemonche, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Heart Observation App for Infants with Congenital Heart Disease
Henrik Holmstr?m, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Topositus
Nikolai Opdan, MN, Department of Mathematics - Allosteric targeting of Aurora B
Nikolina Sekulic, MED, Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM) - musScribe: Automated transcription of music recordings
Olivier Lartillot, HF, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion - Method for assessment of uterine cycle phase – bed-side test to determine fertile days and improve IVF outcome
Peter Fedorcsak, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Devise for analytical Electromembrane Extraction from 3D cell culture, Organoids and organ-on-a-chip platforms
Steven Ray Wilson, MN, Department of Chemistry - Novel Vaccines against influenza
Ranveig Braathen, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Developing DNA diagnostic method for characterizing the human diet
Stefaniya Kamenova, MN, Department of Biosciences - Post-marking analyses using automated Guttman charts
Tony Tan, UV, Centre for Educational Measurement (CEMO) - Fixation of N2 for fertilisers
Truls Norby, MN, Department of Chemistry - Harnessing AI to assist human experts in creating mathematical questions in elementary schools
Tuyen Truong, MN, Department of Mathematics