UN-workshop on campus Drammen

The 14-16 of September 2022, the USN School of Business hosted a workshop on innovation policy in Drammen. The workshop, organized by the USN School of Business, brought together representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Norwegian government and the government of Georgia. Group photo by the Ypsilon bridge at campus Drammen.
Workshop participants by the Ypsilon bridge at campus Drammen. (Photo: Private)

The USN School of Business hosted a workshop for the United Nations on innovation policy

The 14-16 of September 2022, the USN School of Business hosted a workshop on innovation policy in Drammen.

The workshop, organized by the USN School of Business, brought together representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Norwegian government and the government of Georgia. 

To help the Georgian government

They met to discuss about innovation-enhancing public procurement and help the Georgian government to learn from the experience of Norway in this regard, and thus, improve the implementation of this policy instrument in Georgia.

The rector of the University, Prof. Petter Aasen, welcomed all the participants on Wednesday the 14th of September, explaining how one of the missions of the USN is to assure the application of the knowledge developed at the USN, so society benefits from scientific knowledge generation.

14-16 of September 200, the USN School of Business hosted a workshop on innovation policy in Drammen. The workshop, organized by the USN School of Business, brought together representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Norwegian government and the government of Georgia. Standing from left: Professor Jon Mikel Zabala, Professor and Head of Department Gillian Warner-Søderholm, (both USN School of Business) Rector Petter Aasen (USN).

Honoured to be hosts

Professor Gillian Warner-Søderholm, Head of Department at the Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences at the USN School of Business also participated in this opening ceremony, explaining to the participants how honored USN and the Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences are to host this workshop, as the topic under discussion in it is at the core of the research areas addressed by the department.

In the workshop, the representatives of the Georgian State Procurement Agency and the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency could exchange with the Norwegian peers.

They talked about such topics as:

  • the approaches to innovation and innovation policy and public procurement
  • the implementation of innovation procurement
  • the application of procedures and rules for innovation procurement
  • the support to startups through innovation procurement, and learn from multiple examples and cases of innovation procurement in Norway

14-16 of September 2022, the USN School of Business hosted a workshop on innovation policy in Drammen. The workshop, organized by the USN School of Business, brought together representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Norwegian government and the government of Georgia, to discuss about innovation-enhancing public procurement and help the Georgian government to learn from the experience of Norway in this regard, and thus, improve the implementation of this policy instrument in Georgia. Photo of participants in the workshop.

Part of the capacity-building programmes

As regards the Norwegian government, representatives of the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management, Innovation Norway, the Norwegian Research Council, the National Programme for Supplier Development and the StartOff programme participated in the workshop.

The workshop was developed as part of the capacity-building programmes that the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) coordinates to increase the capacities in innovation policy of the countries in the Eastern Europe and South Caucasus (EESC) sub-region.