In October 2023, the Sparebankstiftelsene announced that they will allocate 24 million NOK for research at the University of Southeast Norway.
12 million NOK of these will primarily go to developing entrepreneurship and regional innovation in Buskerud, Telemark and Vestfold.
USN researchers, together with external partners, were invited to apply. The research projects will be collaborations between USN and regional public and private entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurial environments.
The five who have received funds for further research in June 2024, are:
- Jan Velvin and Rebecca Stirzaker with their project "RØIM, regionale innovative entreprenørielle økosystemers mapping".
- Are Branstad with his project "The healthcare industry's entrepreneurial ecosystem".
- Glenn A. Hole with his project "Strategic interventions for increased innovation: Applied science as a catalyst for increased dynamic entrepreneurship".
- Steinar Aasnæss for his project "MYE, manage your ecosystem".
- Jon H. Ulvensøen for his project "Skills mediation - now what?".
The working group received many applications, and has ranked them in collaboration with Sparebankstiftelsen's funds, consisting of the deans at the USN School of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences.
Each project is awarded NOK 500,000.
– Learn from eachother
– We believe these are good projects that will connect our professional community with regional partners. Together we will create new perspectives and opportunities for the future, says Thomas Brekke.
The aim is to develop and strengthen regional innovation and entrepreneurship systems that can stimulate more successful start-up companies.
– This is an exciting opportunity to be able to set aside time to gain knowledge about and understand a field we don't know enough about today, he says.
Brekke, together with the rest of the working group consisting of Harald Hasleberg and Lars-Cyril Blystad, says that the goal is also for the upcoming research projects to build stronger ties between business, political bodies, public administration and academia.
– We have a lot to learn from each other, both when it comes to perspectives and innovation. The idea is that the project will provide better conditions for start-up businesses here in the region, says Brekke.
The call for applications read as follows
The call described three issues. The research project must be a contribution to answering one of these:
1. How do existing cluster and entrepreneurial network initiatives stimulate productive entrepreneurship in the region?
2. What entrepreneurial ecosystems exist, how do these work and how do they stimulate productive entrepreneurship in the region?
3. What can these formal and informal systems learn from each other and how can we, based on this, carry out activities that promote productive entrepreneurship?