emax:

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS UNDER PRESSURE Foresight: Social democracy meets high-tech prosperity CREATIVE INDUSTRIES: Six of the best DiagISN: A bright prognosis for Nordic diagnostics

02 About 200 of the Nordic region’s budding young entrepreneurs are gearing up for a challenging week.

04 New report on foresight in innovation systems sets out strategies for marketing the Nordic global brand.

08 As recently as 2004, when the Nordic Innovation Centre launched its Creative Industries (CI) programme, the sector was seen as a new field of research....

10 Biomedical sensors are an exciting proposition – and a potential growth industry for the Nordic region.

Contents Letter from the Editor

1

emax: New fields to conquer as Swedish initiative goes Nordic

2

Foresight: Social democracy meets high-tech prosperity

4

JENKA: Creative networking for fun and profit

7

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES: Six of the best

8

Foresight: Wireless doctor online

10

DiagISN: A bright prognosis for Nordic diagnostics

13

CONNECT Nordic: Springboard to success

14

Food safety seminar: Come and get it!

15

Nordic news and views

16

Editor-in-Chief: Kjetil Storvik Editor: Gaute Rossnes Text: Tony Samstag, Ellen Heggestad and Tonje Berg-Dawson Updates and editing: Tony Samstag Graphic Design/Layout/Project management: Blanke Ark Photo: Sverre Jarild, Colorbox 14, iStockphoto 10 Printing: RK Grafisk AS ISSN: 1503-9676 Nordic Innovation Centre Stensberggata 25, NO-0170 Oslo, phone: (+47) 47 61 44 00, fax: (+47) 22 56 55 65, [email protected], www.nordicinnovation.net

“What we now need to consider is movement in the other direction....”

Gateway to the North INNOVATE

As “preparation for tomorrow” seems to be the overall theme, this seems a fitting context in which to present some of my thoughts on the future of the Nordic Innovation Centre itself, and more specifically a possible new role for NICe regarding the EU. Our experiences during the past year have led me to think that the time has come for new forms of collaboration between the public funding institutions in the Nordic region and the European Union. We know that NICe plays a role as a representative of the Nordic region in Europe. What we now need to consider is movement in the other direction: NICe’s potential as the EU’s gateway to the north. The five Nordic countries, comprising a population of about 25 million, are proud of their tradition of cooperation embodied in the Nordic Council, the

Nordic Council of Ministers and their various institutions. As representative of the Nordic countries, NICe works closely with the EU in a number of areas with the aim of promoting Nordic involvement as active partners in European projects where the two regions share a common interest. For example, NICe has taken on the role as coordinator of the EU projects SAFEFOODERA and BSRInnoNet, and as an associate partner of ERABUILD and MNT ERA-Net. The latter is a network of European funding programmes for micro- and nanotechnologies, where NICe bolsters Nordic-European collaboration through joint calls for proposals.

In the MNT ERA-Net call 2007, NICe participated on behalf of all Nordic project participants who did not find funding opportunities through national funding programmes. There was a clear need for coordination between the Nordic funding agencies, NICe and the European network. NICe’s role in this process was perceived both by participating Nordic funding agencies and the European coordinatorship, as very beneficial. In the light of these positive experiences, I would like to open a discussion on the feasibility of a Nordic coordinated strategy on Nordic-European collaboration. The rewards, in both directions, could be great.

Kjetil Storvik Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Nordic Innovation Centre

 Letter from the editor

In this issue we report on two projects, concerning respectively the Nordic innovation systems and biomedical sensors, which have conducted “foresight” studies – attempts to anticipate developments and prospects in their fields. Another article looks at efforts to encourage and train young entrepreneurs, the business leaders and innovators of tomorrow.

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Management



emax:

New fields to conquer as Swedish initiative goes Nordic About 200 of the Nordic region’s budding young entrepreneurs are gearing up for an intensive five-day conference aimed at preparing them for the rocky road ahead.

Starting on 14 August, these highly motivated 18-to-21-year-olds from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will be faced with the challenge of running a virtual business enterprise and taking it to the top. They will be forced to make complicated decisions on everything from hiring, firing and personnel management to purchasing production and investment in R&D. Their ability to work as part of a team will be tested to the limit; they will struggle to see the whole picture and to cope with the consequences of decisions made under pressure. State-of the art business simulation will be provided by BTS, the Stockholm-based international company

that has become a world leader in the field, boasting as clients the likes of AtlasCopco, SAS and Nokia.

Hard-won experience Additional inspiration will be supplied by an array of prominent guest speakers, themselves successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, who will take to the stage to share their hard-won insights and dispense the fruits of their experience in the form of instruction and advice. The conference will also be a fine networking opportunity, as participants meet – perhaps for the first time – others as ambitious and driven as themselves, following-up their new contacts through a web-based community.

Sweden has organized a similar “Young entrepreneurs’ week” (UNG entreprenörskapsvecka) for the past five years. Impressed, the Nordic Council of Ministers decided to promote something similar at regional level. The venue for this, the first emax conference, will be Örebro University, about halfway between Stockholm and Gothenburg in the heart of Sweden. Janis Eriksson, the man behind the Swedish initiative, is also responsible for the Nordic event. He is anxious to point out that the business simulation competition is not the most important part of the event, even though it takes up three hours a day over three days. “Most important is what the participants

“You have flair and you deserve a chance to succeed!” Janis Eriksson emax

Sweden’s primeminister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, hands out last years’ price for best entrepreneur.

Focus on the individual

good for you and for the country”.

What really matters, he continues, is “the driving force of each individual. I have been working with young entrepreneurship for a long time, and it occurred to me that we were mostly focusing on groups and enterprises, not on individuals. It was then I decided that we should dare to pick out individuals and say to them: what you do is important and if you continue it will be

Inevitably, some participants in the Swedish conferences have gone on to start their own business. “But for us it is also important that through the event we can strengthen people as individuals – make them believe in themselves for what they do and who they are”, Eriksson says.

About emax: The emax event aims to fill a need for entrepreneurial education in the Nordic countries by serving as a meeting place for potential leaders aged 18 to 21. About 200 young entrepreneurs from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will participate. The event has been organized by STARTcentrum in Örebro, Sweden, in cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Education, Selvstaendighetsfonden (Denmark) the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry, Innovation Norway, NUTEK (Sweden), and the Nordic Innovation Centre (NICe). More info: www.emaxnordic.com

Sweden’s experience has also shown that the established business community is very positive to such initiatives – and sees itself as a natural partner. Swedish companies have shouldered half the costs of the annual “UNG entreprenörskapsvecka”, and take an active role in the continuing development of the event. To the south, EU officials are following the development of emax closely with a view to a possible European version. From the strictly Nordic point of view, as there are few if any provisions for teaching entrepreneurial skills in schools, initiatives such as emax represent much-needed opportunities to inspire and educate the region’s business leaders of tomorrow. As Eriksson puts it, “we are not good at encouraging individuals; we are too reluctant to single out skillful individuals and say to them: ‘You have flair and you deserve a chance to succeed!’”

Contact: Janis Eriksson Startcentrum

[email protected]

 Management

The focus throughout is on the youngsters’ entrepreneurial talents; but in the emax context “entrepreneurship” is broadly defined as relevant not only to the commercial sector but also to social and/ or cultural enterprises. “It can be setting up a theatre or an art exhibition, or starting a project to help people in need”, Eriksson says . “The main thing is to show the ability to actually do something, and not only be good at making plans”.

As regards emax, “having like-minded people get together, not only from Sweden, but from the whole Nordic region, is very important. These young people often stand out in their own community, even from their friends, and meeting someone with the same interests generates a lot of energy. Participants connect very strongly and we know that they maintain very strong networks afterwards.”

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learn from the experience”, he says. “They form a team with one participant from each country, meaning they have to cooperate closely with people they have never met before.”

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“Decision-makers concerned with innovation systems use the word ‘foresight’ to describe the process of assessing the future needs and opportunities...”

Innovation policy



April 2007

Foresight in Nordic Innovation Systems • Creation and operation of a Nordic Foresight Forum • Identification of good practices for foresight in the Nordic countries

Authors: Per Dannemand Andersen, Mads Borup, Kristian Borch, Jari Kaivo-oja, Annele Eerola, Thorvald Finnbjörnsson, Erik Øverland, E. Anders Eriksson, Thomas Malmér and Bengt A. Mölleryd

Download the report from www.nordicinnovation.net

“The strongest network-creating mechanism is to work together on an actual task, meeting deadlines and producing common results.” Peter Dannemand Andersen Risø National Laboratory

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Foresight in innovation systems:

 Innovation policy

Social democracy meets high-tech prosperity New report sets out strategies for marketing the Nordic global brand.

Decision-makers concerned with innovation systems use the word “foresight” to describe the process of assessing the future needs and opportunities for the economy of a country or region with a view to formulating appropriate R&D, investment and trade strategies. As a region, the Nordic countries have one great advantage here: the celebrated “Nordic model” has become in effect a global brand of social democracy, envied by many, which at the very least predisposes international trading partners to think well of industrial and scientific enterprises in the region. However, among the Nordic countries only Sweden has carried out a largescale national foresight exercise similar to those carried out in the UK, Japan and Germany. Notwithstanding the Swedish achievement, the “foresight landscape” in the region as a whole is quite fragmented, with a variety of approaches in differing focus areas often working at cross-purposes. Indeed, although there is a strong case for Nordic cultural affinities - in societal values, history, the

arts, the design of public institutions - in terms of industrial structure the Nordic countries display more dissimilarities than likenesses.

Focus on ‘Nordicness’ The main aim of the “Nordic Foresight Forum” project was, in the words of its stakeholders, “to strengthen the Nordic Innovation Area, to increase the weight of input by Nordic countries in discussions in Europe, and to focus on ‘Nordicness’ in a global world”. It would do this by creating such a forum in the first place, bringing together those engaged in selecting subjects for foresight projects and initiatives in science and technology, and by identifying good practice for foresight in the region. A series of work packages (including workshops, seminars, reviews, analyses, etc.) has culminated in a detailed report, “Foresight in Nordic Innovation Systems”, which features - crucially - the answer to a rather important question: whether there is, or should be, a special Nordic definition of foresight. The report concludes that any “Nordicness” would probably be based on three elements:

• participatory approaches to technological development, based on the traditions of parliamentary assessment (e.g. the Danish and Norwegian Boards of Technology) and civic inclusion in political decisionmaking; • stakeholder discussions to forge consensus between industry, science and policy-making (e.g. in Finland), and • policy-making based on a sophisticated understanding of innovation systems and of the interaction between these systems and foresight exercises involving Nordic research communities within national, regional and/or sectoral innovation systems - a characteristic of all five Nordic countries. In this context, and taking some previous work into account, the authors of the report define Nordic foresight as follows: “A systematic, future-oriented, analytical and interactive process contributing to shared visions concerning long-term developments. In foresight exercises, dynamics in the innovation system (market and industrial structure,

knowledge-production structure, forms of interaction and wider framing conditions) are examined in their realworld, economic and societal context. The purpose is to facilitate interaction between the interest groups and to increase the knowledge base of key actors, so that desirable developments can be supported with relevant strategies, decisions and actions.”

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Niche targets

Innovation policy



Project leader Per Dannemand Andersen of Risø National Laboratory , Technical University of Denmark, says: “As the institutions driving Nordic cooperation are small in comparison with their national and European counterparts, prospective Nordic-level foresight projects are probably best targeted at thematic niches.” In nanotechnology, for example, where the Nordic region is almost certainly too small to compete with a larger regional sphere like the EU, there might still be some room for foresight projects playing to national and regional strengths. A few of the Nordic countries, most notably Denmark, have already carried out nanotechnology and nanocience foresights. Regional Nordic foresights have yielded promising results

in hydrogen energy, biomedical sensors and ICT. “In these areas, it is not the global development of the technologies that is the focus but rather the business opportunities based in these technologies in Nordic countries, and how these opportunities are likely to differ from their counterparts elsewhere, particularly in the rest of Europe or the USA.” At a very hands-on level, for example, the Nordic Hydrogen Energy Foresight created awareness of hydrogen-related activities in the other Nordic countries and demonstrated the complementary nature of these activities, spurring cooperation between businesses in the different countries. The ICT Foresight exercise signposts a common Nordic agenda emphasizing social and cultural values.

meetings (every six months) of the Forum and especially the more committed efforts in the work packages have proved a strong mechanism for both formal and informal networking and exchange of experiences and knowledge. This has also created a solid basis for further European cooperation. The minimum version of the forum is to meet every six months, but our experience of other similar international networks is that without tasks to perform together, networks erode quickly.” Dannemand adds: “The strongest network-creating mechanism is to work together on an actual task, meeting deadlines and producing common results. One of the main purposes of the network is to learn, to exchange practices and to gain experience from foresight activities and their impact on decisionmaking and policy in Nordic countries.”

Heartfelt conclusion The report concludes with a series of proposals and recommendations (see boxes) - including a heartfelt plea to extend the life of the Forum, which could apply to any number of projects, in Norden and elsewhere: “The regular

Nordic Foresight Forum Recommendations 1. Use foresight to strengthen the Nordic Research and Innovation Area and increase the weight of Nordic countries in European discussions. 2. Identify the potential in foresight exercises for Nordic added value. 3. Include the Baltic region; promote the creation of a Baltic Sea Research and Innovation Area through such partners as the Baltic Economic Forum (www.balticeconomicforum.com/). 4. Rolling priorities and adaptive foresight: a limited number of clear priority areas, fixed for a certain period, but with space for emerging areas and issues. 5. Encourage follow-ups to projects which have been concluded. 6. Monitor procedures for Nordic/Baltic foresight activities and work more closely with the European Foresight Monitoring Network (EFMN). 7. Put in place systematic procedures for generating and assessing good ideas and topics for Nordic foresight projects. (See box on the right) 8. Prolong the work of the Nordic Foresight Forum.

Contact: Per Dannemand Andersen [email protected] Risø National Laboratory

Proposals for Nordic foresight: Future topics, projects and/or programmes • the future of innovation in the Nordic social model • health and welfare issues (e-health, health care, elderly people, hospitals) • converging technologies (biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology) • globalization challenges and the Nordic countries • food and agriculture in the Nordic countries • immigration to the Nordic countries • social media in the digital age • sustainable fisheries and Nordic fisheries policy • defence assets cooperation • traffic and sustainable logistics in the Nordic countries • the future of democracy • housing and building futures • the Barents region and Russian futures See further topics and recommendations in the report which can be downloaded on www.nordicinnovation.net

JENKA:

Jenka - Nordic Creative Industries Network

Dance or Die

Towards a common Nordic understanding of the Creative Economy and its implications on regional development, business incubation and education.

Authors: J. Sloth, C. Nielsen, L.-E. Rönnlund, B. Nørstegård, E. Makinen, S. Sigurdsson

Download the report from www.nordicinnovation.net

A Nordic network focusing on creative industries as a specific business area in the region would, it was felt, make it far easier to launch innovative projects across borders and conventional sector definitions. The formal aim of the Jenka project – the “jenka” (or jenkka) is a traditional Finnish folk dance – was to create just such a “Nordic meeting place” and launching pad. Project leader Jørgen Sloth of Roskilde Business College, Denmark, says: “Jenka has fulfilled this aim and proven in just a few short years that it is possible to gather a certain group of relevant organizations in a network and share experiences and good practice, build lasting associations, and launch projects.” Starting from the assumption that innovation and development will evolve from unconventional experiences and strong personal relationships between the people working in this field, Jenka has also demonstrated that “knowledge and good practice are valuable elements when it comes to giving the Nordic region strongholds in tomorrow’s competition in the fast growing market of experiences and culturally embedded products and services”, says Sloth.

Distribution of knowledge Unlike many more traditional projects, Jenka focuses on the distribution of knowledge rather than the accumulation of it, and tangible results have tended to take the form of annual conferences, newsletters, brochures and of course a website: www.jenka.org, recently supplemented by www.jenkaeducation.org, which now serves the “Jenka Creative Industries Network of Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea” – a pointer to the potential of the network as it starts to look beyond the Nordic countries to a wider region. In addition, Jenka has established a number of “learning circles”, in effect nascent clusters, in education, innovation, development and research. The focus here has been on scenarios, best practice, and future development. “Jenka’s core partners are determined to continue the activities of the network beyond the funding period”, Sloth concludes. Contact: Jørgen Sloth

Roskilde Business College

[email protected]

 Creative Industries

November 2006

At the outset of the Jenka network project, the creative industries sector (sometimes described as the “experience economy”) was seen as a new field of research. The field has developed rapidly to the point where it can now rival in importance the likes of IT, biotechnology or environmental industries in national and regional innovation systems.

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Creative networking for fun and profit

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Creative Industries



CREATIVE INDUSTRIES:

Six of the best The creative industries (CI) sector is sometimes described as “the experience economy” or “content-based industries”.

Whatever the terminology, the reference is to “activities producing products and services with their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, focusing on the experience gained by the end-user”. Working from this definition, based on a formulation by the OECD, Nordic Innovation Centre (NICe) senior advisors Petra Nilsson-Andersen and Nina Etelä propose “three core areas where action should be taken with regard to the creative industries if we are to position ourselves in the forefront of the CI sector”: • Professionalization, focusing on the creative entrepreneur and establishing awareness that the sector must be as an economic playing field that necessitates business knowledge and interaction with other industrial areas;

• Intellectual property rights (IPR), as the basic commodity of the new economy and the source of any commercial opportunities in CI, and • Access to capital, which must be encouraged to invest in the creative industries. Accordingly, with the successful completion of the first half-dozen projects in the CI programme, a second call was announced. Six new projects have now been selected by an international panel of experts. Petra Nilsson-Andersen says: “These projects all aim to make a contribution to the professionalization of the Nordic/Baltic creative industries sector by emphasizing the integration of the creative areas and business competencies, as well as enhancing knowledge of the economic preconditions for growth.”

And the projects are...

A penny for your thoughts! The project focuses on early stage financing from the perspectives of both the investors (private equity, seed capitalists and business angels) and recipients. The emphasis is on design and the fashion industry. Project leader: Margret Sigurdardottir, University of Iceland

CSR Design - Nordic innovation and growth A platform for new business ventures focusing on the development of welfare products, innovation skills, and a sustainable and holistic approach to design and business; unlocking the potential of Nordic SMEs to use corporate

“In just a few short years, CI has developed so rapidly that it now rivals in importance the likes of IT, biotechnology or environmental industries in national and regional innovation systems.”

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 Creative Industries

social responsibility (CSR) as a driver for increased competitiveness and growth. Project leader: Torben Jensen, Danish Commerce and Companies Agency

Experience design in city tourism An investigation of how tourist experiences can be designed, communicated and understood from the tourists’ point of view: initially in the service and tourism industries, but with relevance to other sectors. Project leader: Ole Kjaer Mansfeldt, Wonderful Copenhagen

Mobile learning environments (m-learning) The aim is to draw up proposals for platform standardizations, guidelines

and other instruments for future developers of m-learning applications; policy recommendations for implementation of m-learning in Nordic schools. Project leader: Jonas Söderberg, Swedish Institute for Computer Science

Nordic model for Creative Industries Development Centre Helping Nordic cities to develop regional concepts for creative industries, including the recommendation of strategies for boosting the creative economy in the cities of Tartu, Turku and Bergen. Project leader: Kroot Kaljusto-Munck, Tartu City Government/Dept. of Culture

Nordic Serious Games This project aims to unite and strengthen the Nordic serious games industry, promoting innovation and the establishment of new interactive media services in the private and public sectors. Project leader: Marja Kankaanranta, University of Jyväskylä/Agora Centre NICe invests NOK 10 million in the six projects over a two-year period.

Contact: Petra Nilsson-Andersen [email protected] Nordic Innovation Centre

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Life science

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January 2007

Foresight - Biomedical sensors • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor

Authors: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

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“Biomedical sensors can be used to monitor important body functions like blood sugar level or heartbeat rate....” Dag Ausen SINTEF

Wireless doctor online Imagine that your doctor can monitor your heart using data sent wirelessly from your home, around the clock, alerting you immediately if any abnormality is recorded. Or that diagnoses can be made instantly wherever the patient happens to be, reducing the need for costly hospital visits and tests. This kind of remote surveillance, exploiting advances in micro- and nanotechnology, looks set to become routine in future health care regimes as biomedical sensors become smaller, smarter and cheaper. The combination of biomedical sensors and telemedicine in particular promises huge cost savings in public health provision. In the future, chips implanted in the body might function as a constant onboard doctor, monitoring patients with chronic diseases, measuring vital data, detecting new health problems at an early stage, and even delivering drugs directly into the bloodstream. The recently concluded foresight study FOBIS looked at the use of biomedical sensors in three important areas: homebased care, emergency medicine and chemical hazards. Dag Ausen of the Norwegian research group SINTEF was project manager. He

defines a biomedical sensor as “a device that provides information about the state of the human body or elements affecting the state of the human body”.

Vital signs Ausen continues: “Advanced bodywearable biomedical sensors combined with remote monitoring and telemedicine, open up a whole new range of health care services. Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes or rheumatism can be monitored in order to safeguard their treatment. Biomedical sensors can be used to monitor important body functions like blood sugar level or heartbeat rate. Or they can check for levels of toxic agents present. Alarms can be set to go off when values are dangerous. There is even the possibility of having chips implanted into your body, chips that send signals directly to your doctor’s office, or the hospital.” The Nordic countries, like most in the western world, are faced with an ageing population with an everincreasing need for health care and too few hands to provide it. Norway alone will need 100,000 new health care workers in the next ten years. Ausen believes that biomedical sensors enabling health professionals to monitor patients in their own home will be an important part of any solution. Additional

11 Life science

Biomedical sensors are an exciting proposition – and a potential growth industry for the Nordic region.

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Foresight:

“This is especially important when you consider the impending tide of aged population in the western world, not to mention the challenge of obesity.” Dag Ausen

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SINTEF

Life science

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benefits will be improved quality of life, and prolonged longevity. “This is especially important when you consider the impending tide of aged population in the western world, not to mention the challenge of obesity”, he says. “It is important that patients are given tools that enable them to better understand the processes taking place in their bodies, and are helped to take actions that benefit their health. This will also indirectly limit the need for direct medical services.”

Business as usual Patients could have their own “control station” at home, transmitting continuous or periodic readings for storage in a central data bank, creating in effect a continuous medical history – including any alarming symptoms – that would be instantly available to doctors. At the same time, the patients would be going about their business without being hospitalized and/or tied down to machines. However, Ausen adds,” for sensors to be used on a large scale for medical purposes, they need to be robust and reliable. Having a patient hooked up to a sensor whilst lying quietly in a hospital bed with nurses in close vicinity is one thing. A patient in his own home, moving about and living an active life, is quite another. You have to know that the data coming in from the sensors are reliable.” And given the inevitable budget limitations in public health, the technology has to be cost-effective. “The use of biomedical sensors in emergency medicine, or when monitoring acute ill patients is another area we’ve

In the future, chips implanted in the body might function as a constant onboard doctor, monitoring patients with chronic diseases, eg. diabetes.

looked at in the FOBIS-project study”, Ausen continues. For example, the Intervention Centre at the Norwegian Rikshospital (National Hospital) in Oslo – one of several Nordic “hotspots” for new developments in wireless medical sensor technology – is working with SINTEF and Vestfold University College in developing a small sensor for use during operations on beating hearts. The sensor registers the heart’s movements threedimensionally, detecting any irregular heart activity at an early stage.

“Lab-on-a-chip” In cooperation with SINTEF, the Norwegian company Norchip has developed a range of sophisticated biomedical diagnostic kits and in vitro diagnostic systems that can carry out a variety of chemical and biological readings within minutes. A doctor or

nurse can place biological samples onto a plastic chip the size of a credit card which works like a miniature laboratory: the so called “lab-on-a-chip” system. In future a small droplet of blood is all it will take to measure your level of cholesterol, blood sugar or whatever – and all in the comfort of your own home. But we will still need the doctor. This is no sci-fi technological scenario where health is left to computers. The point of biomedical sensors is to better equip the health professionals for the jobs they trained for. Data are only data; we will always need the professionals to assess them. Contact: Dag Ausen

SINTEF

[email protected]

DiagISN:

A bright prognosis for Nordic diagnostics The pharmaceutical industry has invested huge sums in innovative medicine – the process of developing and taking new drugs to market – for decades in the hope of finding solutions to major public health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

As the concepts of innovative and personalized medicines consolidate, traditional methods of identifying a particular disease, pathogen or hazard – clinical chemistry or immunoassays, for example – are being supplemented by hi-tech trials based on gene expression profiles, biomarkers and the like, and more drugs are based on genotypic or phenotypic information. Consequently, specialized diagnostics companies have come to play an increasingly important role as knowledge providers to the pharmaceutical sector.

Active involvement

A bright future Diagnostic testing is thought to account for no more than two per cent of government healthcare expenditures worldwide – while influencing 60-70 per cent of healthcare decisions. Clearly, the future is bright for this sector; but here, as in many aspects of the life sciences, the individual Nordic countries are far too small ever to achieve “critical mass” in many international markets, however outstanding the products and expertise of their companies or research institutions. The 18-month-old Nordic Diagnostic Industry Stakeholders Network (DiagISN) is a particularly successful example of a typical Nordic response to the “critical mass” dilemma. Following in the footsteps

13 Life science

of the Nordic immuno-technology network, BioRecNet and the Workshop on Theranostic Tools (and the hugely ambitious ScanBalt programme), DiagISN aims “to expand knowledge across traditional boundaries between the diagnostics industry and pharmaceutical development”.

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Paradoxically, the relatively recent growth of “personalized” medicine, where treatment is based on the individual patient’s detailed genetic and clinical data, has brought closer the day when new drugs or other therapies can be developed for the vast majority of patients suffering from such conditions.

DiagISN “has successfully delivered what it undertook to do in the application to the Nordic Innovation Centre”, says project leader Gunnar Hörnsten of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK). “Among the key criteria that have been met is the active involvement of 39 companies (of which 26 companies have chosen to become members of DiagISN), two institutes, one pharmaceutical industry organization and three universities.... The foundation of a membership supported network is thereby in place.” As the next step, Hörnsten recommends a series of collaborative studies on a few selected technical issues: e.g., quality and validation demands on tests involving bioinformatics; a revaluation (and possible re-definition) of personalized medicine, tools for monitoring prognostic and progression markers, and patient self-testing. “There is an urgent need to develop a strategy on the business and market developments needed to substantiate an acknowledged Nordic regional competence in diagnostics as part of a long-term strategy of keeping the Nordic diagnostics industry not only alive, but fully competitive and in a strategically leading position”.

January 2007

Building the start of a Diagnostics Industry Stakeholders Network • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor

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Contact: Gunnar Hörnsten

SIK

[email protected]

Download the report from www.nordicinnovation.net

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Management

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CONNECT Nordic:

Springboard to success CONNECT Nordic links entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Nordic and Baltic region with the financial, technical and business development resources needed to create and develop knowledge-based companies.

Formed in 2002 as an association of national CONNECT networks in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden (subsequently joined by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), CONNECT Nordic is an independent regional organization operating within a worldwide network of such bodies which originated in San Diego in 1985. CONNECT are currently being set up in Germany, Iceland, Poland and Russia. Altogether there are now 28 independent local, national or regional CONNECT networks in this region. Each national CONNECT network is built around the major research universities in collaboration with the business community. Activities conducted by the networks aim to “package” entrepreneurs’ ideas into start-ups with the potential to become international companies. Accountants, lawyers, management and marketing consultants, scientists venture capitalists and industrialists are among the legions of professionals contributing their time and know-how to network activities.

Practical help These include the all-important “Springboards”, through which expert panels offer practical help to entrepreneurs; financial forums, serving as meeting places for selected start-ups seeking seed capital and venture capitalists looking for investment opportunities; and a range of publications offering entrepreneurs and start-ups guidance on important issues. CONNECT Nordic’s activities have so far yielded (i.a.) the following results: Contact: Erik Melin

Stiftelsen Connect Nordic, Sverige

• • • •

3500 companies have attended CONNECT’s activities 1900 of these have attended springboards 4500 professional volunteers are active in CONNECT NKr 9 billion has been raised in fresh capital

Arne Brekke, general manager of Visual Solutions AS (formerly BB Visual Solutions AS), a Norwegian oil industry consultancy, says: “CONNECT was a good sparring partner at start-up and a great help with our business plan. Through Springboard we made contact with potential investors from Bergen and Stavanger, two of whom are interested in coming in with us. CONNECT has been incredibly supportive, and we are still in touch on a regular basis.”

Springboard Prize Acticut International AB is a Swedish specialist in vibrationand noise suppression for machine tools and systems used in the wood and metal cutting industry. Managing director Rolf Zimmerman says the local network CONNECT Halland has helped increase turnover to SKr 15-20 million. He adds proudly: “In just a short time we have shown that we can expand the company – and we have even won the local CONNECT Springboard Prize for the progress we have made!” CONNECT Nordic was funded by the Nordic Innovation Centre and the EU Interreg III B programme. For more information: www.connectnordic.com

[email protected]

Food Safety for Industrial Innovation 29 August Lyngby, Denmark

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15 Food Safety

Food safety seminar:

Come and get it! For more than a decade the position of the Nordic food industry in a European and global context has been a major preoccupation of the Nordic Innovation Centre. Through a variety of programmes and projects NICe, together with other Nordic and European institutions, has supported the sector enthusiastically in its efforts to provide safe products of high quality and to develop new technologies for the purpose. The ultimate aim of NICe’s work in particular has been to promote innovation in the Nordic food industry and increase its competitiveness.

“Food Safety for Industrial Innovation” on 29 August at the Danish Technological University (DTU) in Lyngby. As well as current developments and focus areas in food safety in Europe, presentations will include an overview of NICe projects involving processing for food safety. Scheduled topics to date include acrylamide precursors, microbial risk assessment from an industrial perspective, a molecular approach to food safety, and integrating food safety and traceability. For programme and information on how to register, see:

Some of the latest results of food-related research projects are to be presented to Nordic stakeholders at a seminar on

FOOD SAFETY WWW.NORDICINNOVATION.NET

www.nordicinnovation.net

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Enhancing innovation capabilities

E U L B G N I H T SOME

New Trends in Nordic Innovation Oulu City Hall, Finland, 29-30 November 2007

Return address: Nordic Innovation Centre Stensberggata 25 NO-0170 Oslo Norway Telephone: (+47) 476 14 400 [email protected]

The Finnish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers, with the Nordic Innovation Centre, invites you to the “New Trends in Nordic Innovation” Conference in Oulu. The Finnish presidency has highlighted the importance of user-driven innovation and smoothly functioning regional innovation systems for the competitiveness of the Nordic business sector. New trends in Nordic innovation policy will help us achieve success in the global marketplace and meet the challenges of the future. This conference is an arena for dialogue between innovation policy-makers in the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries and the European Commission. We look forward to stimulating discussions on ways in which the promotion of regional innovation systems and user-driven innovation can contribute to policy measures that may enhance the competitiveness of the Nordic business environment. For preliminary programme and early registration: www.nordicinnovation.net

Nordic Innovation Centre The Nordic Innovation Centre initiates and finances activities that enhance innovation collaboration and develop and maintain a smoothly functioning market in the Nordic region. The Centre works primarily with small and mediumsized companies (SMEs) in the Nordic countries. Other important partners are those most closely involved with innovation and market surveillance, such as industrial organisations and interest groups, research institutions and public authorities. The Nordic Innovation Centre is an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers. Its secretariat is in Oslo. For more information: www.nordicinnovation.net