Eva S. Dugstad is our new competence broker for Oslo-based companies. Photo: Stig Jarnes/ Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Meet our new competence broker

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Picture of Eva S. Dugstad in a black jacket and white blouse, smiling.

Eva S. Dugstad is our new research and industry facilitator aka competence broker for Oslo-based companies.

A competence broker (from the Norwegian word kompetansemegler) is an agent for connecting research and industry, as well as a conveyor of expertise. Her goal is to strengthen the research-based business development in Oslo and to mobilise more research-based innovation in the innovation districts of Oslo.

The service is funded by the City of Oslo and is free of charge.

Experienced advisor

Eva S. Dugstad is a special advisor in Oslo Cancer Cluster and director for business development in Radforsk, as well as the general manager in Nucligen – a company that develops radiopharmaceuticals. For many years, Dugstad was the CEO of the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), in charge of Norway’s only nuclear reactors.

“My focus as a competence broker in Oslo is to establish projects that can face long-term challenges in industry development, make the green transformation and take advantage of the specific benefits of the Oslo region. My field of expertise is within health and life sciences, with focus on digitalisation and digital transformation,” said Eva S. Dugstad.

The service

Dugstad knows what it takes to build bridges between research and industry. Her keen eye spots opportunities for businesses and she knows what Norwegian academia looks for in industry partners.

“As a competence broker, I help businesses that want to apply for funding find the correct schemes. I can then make sure they cover the necessary requirements in the application,” Dugstad explained.

However, there is more to the service than purely application support.

“If a business has a good, innovative idea, they can run it by me, and I will quickly see if it is indeed research or development. Ideas that are purely about development, without the research component, will not receive funding. I can also connect businesses to the right partners, when there is a need for collaboration”, said Dugstad.

Companies in Oslo with research-based ideas are welcome to reach out to Dugstad, or one of her four colleagues in Oslo.

20 million by 20 October

The Regional Research Funds’ main projects are called regional innovation projects. Currently, there are NOK 20 million on the table and the application deadline is 20 October 2021. Each project can apply for NOK 1-3 million.

The most important ingredient in a successful application is good research. A research partner is not required, but many of the applicants will benefit from a partner, according to the Regional Research Funds.

Eva S. Dugstad explained how the scheme works:

“Companies in both the private and public sector can apply to this scheme. One goal is to strengthen the ties between research and development organisations and private businesses – and ensure qualified participation in research and innovation both nationally and in the EU.”

Innovation districts

Three innovation districts in Oslo are also involved in the competence broker service. They are called Innovasjonsdistrikt Hovinbyen, Innovasjonsdistrikt Sentrum and Oslo Science City. The competence brokers look to the innovation districts to find partners and funding schemes.

Oslo Science City is the first innovation district in Norway, including members such as the University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital, South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst RHF), Sintef, and Oslo Cancer Cluster. The district mobilises 7 500 researchers in developing ecosystems for innovation and green transformation, bringing together educational institutions, researchers, the business community, and the public sector.

“An innovation district supports the work of the competence brokers by laying the groundwork for effective partnerships between researchers and businesses”, said Christine Wergeland Sørbye, CEO Oslo Science City.

Within health and life science, she sees the need for stronger collaborations instead of funding competitions.

“In Norway, we find that leading experts must often compete with one another for research funding or support to commercialize their ideas. Instead, there should be a greater focus on incentives that stimulate interdisciplinary cooperation. If research institutes, the hospital, and other healthcare providers, startups, established businesses, and the health authorities all work together, we will be better positioned to develop leading solutions that can compete on a global scale”, said Wergeland Sørbye.

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Vaccibody is one of the companies working in Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator's laboratories to develop novel cancer treatments. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

Turning offices into laboratories

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OCC Incubator labs

Something remarkable has happened in Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator: office spaces have transformed into laboratories.

When Janne Nestvold, Chief Operating Officer of Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, noticed the empty offices and meeting rooms in the beginning of the corona lockdown, she saw an opportunity. Why not turn these spare rooms into much-needed laboratory space?

Walls had to be moved, a separate ventilation system had to be installed, and new water pipes had to be fitted. Expensive instruments were ordered and work benches with hoods were mounted for the cell laboratory. All rooms needed to be dimensioned correctly down to the last millimetre for everything to fit precisely.

Shortage of laboratories

Why did Nestvold go to all this trouble? The answer is simple: there is a lack of laboratory and test capacity in Norway for new health companies.

“Emerging companies in cancer often don’t have the resources to build their own advanced laboratories and buy all the expensive equipment themselves. The companies turn to us instead for our shared public-private laboratory facilities, which have become very important for them to succeed.”
Janne Nestvold

Janne Nestvold

Janne Nestvold, Chief Operating Officer of Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator

An urgent need

The demand for test facilities can be seen all over Norway. One example is Vaccibody, a Norwegian biopharmaceutical company developing novel vaccines and immunotherapies against cancer. As the company has grown recently, they needed to expand beyond the two labs they have in Oslo Science Park.

This spring, the Research Oncology Team at Vaccibody started using the labs at OCC Incubator. They are currently performing pre-clinical vaccination studies at the Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, a Comprehensive Cancer Centre, which is located next to OCC Incubator.

“It is practical for us to have a laboratory located close to the facility where we perform our in vivo studies. Being a member of OCC Incubator is beneficial as we for instance get access to equipment that we may not use often enough to purchase on our own.” Audun Bersaas, PhD and Senior Scientist at Vaccibody.

Audun Bersaas, and his team from Vaccibody, working in the Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator laboratories.

The Research Oncology team at Vaccibody are developing novel vaccines and immunotherapies against cancer. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

Breaking down barriers

The laboratories are shared between academic researchers from the Cell Therapy Unit at Oslo University Hospital and researchers from Norwegian companies, including Vaccibody, ThermoFisher, Zelluna Immunotherapy, Ultimovacs, and more.

“Research environments can be very competitive. In Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, we are building a collaborative atmosphere, based on mutual respect and sharing principles. This is important to help new companies reach their milestones.” Janne Nestvold

The Research Oncology team at Vaccibody are developing novel immunotherapies and vaccines against cancer.

The laboratories will be shared between different companies and researchers from Oslo University Hospital’s Cell Therapy Unit. Photo: Oslo Cancer Cluster

The vision for a healthy future

Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator supports more collaboration between researchers, industry, hospital staff and innovation ecosystems, so treatments can be developed and reach patients faster.

“To meet increasing pressure on the health services in the future, we need to invest in developing new technologies, diagnostics and treatments here in Norway,” said Ketil Widerberg, CEO, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator.

“Norway has world-class research environments in medicine, it is time to turn the research into products that help people and companies that create jobs, export opportunities and added value for society.” Ketil Widerberg

Ketil Widerberg, CEO, OCC Incubator

Ketil Widerberg, Chief Executive Officer of Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator

However, developing novel solutions in health come with high requirements. There is a need to test carefully to ensure it is safe and the innovations have a lengthy development time. This means that companies need access to more test facilities to bring innovative solutions to market.

Together with the other Norwegian health clusters, Norway Health Tech and Norwegian Smart Care Cluster, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator wants to set up more laboratories and test facilities in Norway.

In Oslo, there is already a lot happening. The Radium Hospital is building a completely new clinic and proton building, while Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park will expand in two building stages over the next few years.

  • Hear more about the plans for building the health industry in Norway in this webinar (in Norwegian) from 21 May 2021.
The 10th edition of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase was arranged as a virtual event.

Celebrating the 10th International Cancer Cluster Showcase

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ICCS 2021

ICCS 2021 highlighted success stories and promising newcomers in oncology innovation.

The 10th edition of the International Cancer Cluster Showcase (ICCS) was presented this week as a satellite event to BIODigital. More than 260 representatives from the global oncology milieu signed up to learn about novel technologies and promising treatment approaches for combating cancer.

The digital event gathered oncology innovation hubs from North America and Europe for the 10th time. Since the first showcase at the Whitehead Institute in 2012, many of the previous presenters have achieved impressive milestones. Seven of these companies joined again this year and presented their success stories and learnings. They were accompanied by seven emerging companies on their way to become the success stories of tomorrow.

Jutta Heix, Head of International Affairs and Co-Initiator of ICCS, opened the event and invited the participants on a virtual journey along the North American East Coast and Europe, with stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Oxford, Oslo, Bordeaux and Lausanne.

“At each stop of the journey, we presented one success story and one newcomer giving a flavour of the innovation potential residing in our innovation hubs.” Jutta Heix

“To inspire novel collaboration and partnership opportunities, we concluded the event with a networking session. All attendees could meet the presenting companies and the organizing partners in break-out rooms for to discuss and to learn more about the local pipelines,” says Jutta Heix.

Presenting from Norway

The Norwegian travel stop featured two Oslo Cancer Cluster members: Vaccibody as success story and Zelluna Immunotherapy as newcomer. Anders Holm, Chief Operating Officer at Zelluna Immunotherapy, introduced the company’s “off-the-shelf” T-cell receptor (TCR) guided natural killer (NK) cell therapy products for the treatment of multiple solid cancers.

“Being part of the ICCS is a great opportunity to present our story and technology and it enables networking and interaction points with other participants and companies.”
Anders Holm

View Zelluna Immunotherapy’s presentation

We kindly thank the sponsors and partners BIO, DNB and Precision for Medicine for their ongoing support. A special thanks to Andrea Cotton-Berry, Global Head of Strategic Operations, EU, US and APAC at Precision For Medicine, Oncology and Rare Disease, for her welcoming note.

The recordings of all the presentations are available on the event homepage until the end of September 2021.

Contact details and short company profiles of the presenters can be found in the ICCS 2021 event guide.

Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke of plans for research at Oslo Cancer Cluster's annual summer gathering.

Visions for cancer innovation in Norway

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Man in suit looking into camera

Oslo Cancer Cluster gathered the Norwegian oncology community for a mid-year update in June.

Last week, Oslo Cancer Cluster arranged the June Gathering 2021, a digital event which was attended by members, partners and colleagues from the Norwegian oncology community. The event included updates from the organisation, presentations from several prominent speakers and introductions of new members.

Henrik Asheim, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, spoke at the event about ambitious plans for Norwegian research and praised Oslo Cancer Cluster for giving important input on a Norwegian cancer mission.

“Oslo Cancer Cluster has already suggested Norway launch a cancer mission, with a specific goal of reducing the time from when clinical trials with new drugs start, to when those drugs can be part of standard patient treatment in hospitals.” Henrik Asheim

Watch the entire speech here:

Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster, echoed the importance of putting Norway on the cancer map internationally, by using Norwegian advantages.

“We can use our health data to accelerate and move the approval of medicine from an average ten to five years. We can also follow-up patients better and precision medicine enables us to do this. Norway needs its own cancer mission.” Ketil Widerberg

Welcome, new members

The three new members Bio-Me AS, Daiichi-Sankyo and OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University) expressed excitement about joining Oslo Cancer Cluster and looked forward to participating in the organisation’s activities.

Morten Isaksen, Founder and CEO of Bio-Me As, a Norwegian start-up company that is creating better diagnostic tools for microbiome profiling, spoke first.

“The whole concept of the microbiome, the gut bacteria, and how it influences health and how drugs are metabolised are creating a paradigm shift in preventive health and health in general.” Morten Isaksen

The company has created a platform for precision microbiome profiling, which takes the vast knowledge of the microbiome to something that can be used in a clinical setting.

Isaksen was followed by Martin Ahlgren, Medical Drector at Daiichi-Sankyo, a global pharmaceutical company originating from Japan and with European headquarters in Germany. Daiichi-Sankyo has recently also set up a Nordic headquarter in Copenhagen with more than 20 employees.

“We are in the middle of launching our first oncology brand in the Nordic market in collaboration with AstraZeneca.” Martin Ahlgren

The last speaker was Carl Christian Thodesen, Dean at the Faculty of Technology, Art and Design at OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University).

“We are thinking more about technology and health together: how we can connect what is happening in IT and mechanics with what is happening in health.” Carl Christian Thodesen

The Faculty is working on an exciting initiative to bring artificial intelligence (AI) and product design services together with healthcare and nursing, so that new projects can be launched in the research world.

You can read more about our members by visiting the Membership Overview and learn about our upcoming events in the Event Calendar.