In February, the UiO Growth House announced a call for seed funding to support researchers who want to develop their innovation ideas.
The Growth House received 8 applications for seed I where the maximum amount is NOK 50,000 and 9 for seed II where the maximum amount is NOK 200,000. Of these, 6 and 5 projects have been granted seed funding and will receive a total of NOK 1.3 million.
The projects that have received seed funding II will develop better methods for measuring brain activity, methods for diagnosing heart disease, follow-up of families with children with chronic disease, treatment of bacterial disease and methods that will make it easier for patients to take samples for diagnosis at home.
A tool for reaching out to new research environments
– Most of the support goes to researchers at our owner faculties – the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences – where we work actively to strengthen the innovation culture, but through funds we have received from UiO and the interdisciplinary initiative UiO:Life Science, we can also support researchers at other faculties with both seed funding and guidance, says leader of the Growth House Hilde Nebb.
She adds that the seed funding of NOK 50,000 is a tool for reaching out to new research environments. The aim is that researchers get help to take their innovation project one step further, and we want it to be a low-bureaucratic process that makes it worthwhile both to spend time applying and reporting.
All who applied for seed funding, will now be offered follow-up from the UiO Growth House.
Are aiming towards more predictable application processes for researchers
This was the third round of call for seed funding from the Growth House. The Growth House has also managed UiO's innovation funds in the last two years and will announce these also later this year.
– We also see our call in connection with the other innovation calls at UiO. We have made a webpage with an overview of the calls and are working on an overview of the criteria for applying to the various calls so that researchers can more easily assess which calls are relevant to them, says project leader for both calls, innovation adviser Ivar Bergland.
Projects that have been granted funding
The researchers come from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MN), the Faculty of Medicine (MED), the Faculty of Social Sciences (SV) and the Faculty of Educational Sciences (UV).
Seed funding II up to NOK 200 000
- FlexBrain
Charlotte Boccara, MED, Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM - PRIDE – Precision RNA-based Diagnostic of Heart Failure
Gustavo Jose Justo da Silva, MED, Institute of Basic Medical Science - The “SIBS” Intervention for Siblings of Children with Chronic Disorders
Krister Fjermestad, SV, Department of Psychology - SmaSh-Flex: Smart Samplers for Flexible protein determination
Trine Gr?nhaug Halvorsen, MN, Department of Pharmacy, Farmas?ytisk institutt - Immunoresolvents against bacterial infections
Trond Vidar Hansen, MN, Department of Pharmacy
Seed funding I funding up to NOK 50 000
- The TACT App: Can a trauma-specific digital intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) improve trauma patients’ health-related quality of life
Anna Sophia Engel, SV, Department of Psychology - Wearable Electrophysiology Balance Monitoring in Parkinson’s Disease
Mathias Toft, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine - Dynamic synthesis of multi-regime reactive transport in complex pore-fracture networks
Mohammad Nooraiepour, MN, Department of Geosciences - Advancing Instruction through Enhanced Learning Analytics with AI
Rogers Kaliisa, UV, Department of Education - Discovery and validation of novel protein biomarkers for enhanced prediction of cardiovascular disease
Torbj?rn Omland, MED, Institute of Clinical Medicine pride - Using AI to help create mathematical questions in Norwegian elementary schools
Tuyen Truong, MN, Department of Mathematics
The applications have been assessed by the innovation advisers in the UiO 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.