Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster, represented Norway in one of the panel sessions during Global Health Security Demo Day at SXSW2021.

Norwegian life science @ SXSW2021

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We put global health security on the agenda at the influential technology conference SXSW.

Oslo Cancer Cluster and the other Norwegian health clusters Norway Health Tech and The Life Science Cluster participated in the conference South by South West (SXSW) for the first time ever last week.

The conference usually takes place in Austin (Texas), but due to current corona restrictions it was made available through an online platform.

The full-day event Global Security Demo Day, arranged by The Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS), attracted many big names in health and life science from across the globe on Wednesday 17 March.

“It is clear that there is a silver lining of accelerated development, new innovations and increased public-private partnership in health emerging from the current Covid-crisis,” said Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster.

The Norwegian life science environment was also represented at this event, by keynote speaker Bent Høie, Minister of Health and Care Services, several representatives from private companies and the heads of the Norwegian health clusters Oslo Cancer Cluster, Norway Health Tech and The Life Science Cluster.

“It is great that Bent Høie, the Norwegian Minister of Health, supports innovative health companies at one of the world’s largest technology conferences in Texas,” said Ketil Widerberg.

View the panel sessions

Watch the video above for the panel session The race to a vaccine with Ketil Widerberg, general manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster and Trent Munro, Professor at Australian Institute for Bio-Engineering and Nanotechnology, moderated by Janet Walkow Executive Director and CTO, Drug Dynamics Institute, UT Austin.

The event was organised by TEXGHS, Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas at Austin, Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), Consulate General of Denmark in Houston, The Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Houston and European Network of Research and Innovation Centres and Hubs, USA (ENRICH).