Norwegian Centres of Expertise:
New centres for tourism, energy and petroleum
Another three Norwegian industrial clusters have been granted status as Norwegian Centres of Expertise (NCE). The centres aspire to become international leaders in their fields.
Norwegian Centres of Expertise is a scheme for Norwegian regional industrial clusters with an international orientation and substantial growth potential. The purpose of the scheme is to enhance the clusters' innovation activities. Nine NCEs have already been established; the three new centres are described below.
(Foto: Shutterstock)
NCE Tourism - Fjord Norway
The Fjord Norway region encompasses the large tourist areas of Vestlandet. The new NCE seeks to make the region an even more attractive, sustainable and year-round travel destination. The centre will achieve its objectives by improving coordination of its products and markets, and will focus primarily on winter tourism, hiking tourism, outdoor adventure and art.
Fjord Norway AS is a collaboration between 80 partners from tourism and hospitality, R&D groups and other relevant industries. The objective is to make the Fjord Norway region a world leader in themed tourism.
NCE Energy and Emissions Trading - Inkubator Halden
The energy and ICT community in the Halden area of Østfold County aims to become a centre at the international forefront of R&D on advanced ICT systems, physical products and expertise for the international energy market.
(Foto: Shutterstock)
The research park Inkubator Halden AS comprises a partnership between five core companies, 17 related ICT companies and 10 industry partners. Also involved in this collaboration are Innovation Norway, the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway (SIVA), and several knowledge institutions, public-sector bodies and industry organisations.
NODE (Norwegian Offshore & Drilling Engineering)
The NODE cluster in Aust- and Vest Agder counties seeks to become an international knowledge centre for oil and gas activities. The companies involved also plan to establish new positions internationally within other related business areas. To ensure that the cluster reaches its objectives, greater emphasis will be placed on R&D and activities that reinforce the synergy between the partners.
The NODE cluster consists of 48 core companies within the oil and gas sector, as well as the University of Agder, the Agder office of Innovation Norway, Aust- and Vest-Agder counties, and five municipalities in the region.
(Foto: Shutterstock)
Important instrument
Eirik Normann, Director of the Research Council's Department for Innovation Programmes, is a member of the steering group for the NCE scheme. He views the scheme as a superb way to encourage strong industry clusters by actively applying research as a tool to strengthen the clusters' and the individual companies' ability and capacity to innovate.
"Through our other programmes and initiatives, the Research Council seeks to further strengthen the centres' participants," says Mr Normann. "We have seen many examples where these combinations have produced results."
Collaborating on creative thinking
The NCE scheme also seeks to enhance and accelerate the clusters' existing development projects. The close collaboration between the companies and other relevant enterprises and knowledge institutions enables them to efficiently carry out demanding innovation processes.
Eirik Normann
The NCE scheme will also create a foothold for new activities by integrating more companies into the cluster and promoting the commercialisation of new business ideas.
The scheme is based on a collaborative agreement between Innovation Norway, the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway (SIVA), and the Research Council of Norway.
The Norwegian Centres of Expertise scheme (NCE)encourages industrial innovation in a regional context through cooperation between companies, researchers, universities and university colleges and the public authorities. The scheme is established in cooperation with Innovation Norway and the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway (SIVA).
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- Published:
- 17.06.2009
- Last updated:
- 25.06.2009
See also
Other websites
Contact
- Eirik Helge Normann Director (department) 22 03 71 79 en@forskningsradet.no
