On 16 December, it was announced that the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) will be one of eight institutions to receive funding from the Research Council of Norway's programme, Kapasitetsløft to enhance competence and research for regional businesses, aimed at enhancing competence and research for regional businesses. USN's project CoTecH – Co-Created Health Technology, was the only one selected in our region.
‘We are very pleased now’, says Janne Herholdt Dugstad, project manager and head of USN’s Centre for Health and Technology, and Cecilie Varsi, vice dean for research and entrepreneurship and CoTecH’s scientific lead.
Varsi will also head up the steering group. They have led the team that spent considerable time and effort on the application to the Research Council.
Working together on new health technology
CoTecH will be coordinated and led by USN and involves a total of 28 partners from the healthcare industry, the health service, service users and researchers in the counties of Viken and of Vestfold and Telemark, as well as from other parts of the country, plus Sweden and Ireland.
CoTecH aims to identify needs and develop, test and implement digital healthcare services and health technology. The overarching goal is to establish a regional, leading interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration within digital health and technology between the healthcare industry, the health service and USN, which will be of national importance and have international recognition.
Dugstad and Varsi emphasise that the interdisciplinary collaboration is a major strength of the project. The development of health technology entails various components, such as the application of person-centred health science, sensor technology, micro- and nanotechnology, smart technology, and artificial intelligence, systems theory, digitalisation processes, organisational processes, change management, service innovation, implementation knowledge, learning theories and ethics. Sustainability is an essential perspective for all stakeholders and the project therefore includes researchers from all four faculties at USN.
‘This is a very complex field to work in. The health service itself is complex, with a large degree of statutory regulation and political governance. The financing mechanisms also have a major impact. This is a field that requires interdisciplinary collaboration,’ they affirm.
Potential for more projects
The project period starts on 1 May 2022, and before then, the project needs to be well planned. Employees from all faculties will be reassigned from other duties to participate, and four research fellows and three postdoctoral fellows will also be hired, among others. A variety of activities are planned throughout the project period.
‘The specific services and technologies we will work on will be decided by the partners. We will obviously work on, for example, digital home monitoring, but the partnership will help prioritise’, says Dugstad.
Dugstad also believes that CoTecH has the potential to lay the groundwork for several spinoff projects, where partners can apply for funding and conduct their own projects.
‘We have a diverse region, and we will get exciting and talented research partners whose experiences differ from ours, which we can put to use. We believe we complement each other well for the good of the common goal’, say Dugstad and Varsi.