Constructing Regional Advantage in Knowledge-based Industries - Norwegian Policy Approaches (ECRP-2007)

The Norwegian part of the overall project investigates how three different regions (Oslo, Gjøvik- Raufoss and Arendal-Grimstad) operate and adapt the two national policy initiatives of FORNY and Arena in order to increase the number of knowledge based start-ups and stimulate cluster building processes in the regions.

The three study regions represent different types of regionalinnovation systems, and are selected to be comparable with regions studied in other European countries in the overall project. The policy initiatives under study are four commercialisation units focusing on stimulating start-ups and patenting in the biomedical and biotech industries in Oslo, Akerselva Innovasjon focusing on cluster building processes in the cultural industries in Oslo, Arena Lettmetall in Gjøvik-Raufoss which aims to stimulate cooperation between important actors within andbeyond the light weight metal cluster in the region, and, lastly, the research park in Arendal-Grimstad which is a commercialisation unit aimed to stimulate start-ups andcluster building processes within the region's ICT industry. The country specific cases of policy initiatives in the overall project will be compared according to a joint frame of reference and common criteria. Comparable types of data are also gathered, and include in the Norwegian case documents and reports about FORNY and Arena, secondary data on the three study regions and industries, and interviews with policy actors, knowledge suppliers and selected firms involved in the investigated policy initiatives and regions.

The Norwegian study will have a special contribution to the overall project by focusing particularly on the activity of regional support organisations, which in this case are commercialisation units in the FORNY program and regional cluster organisation in the Arena project. The project will in particular analyse how such organisations develop capabilities of learning to be able to design tools adapted to their target group of firms and clusters. Dissemination of results from the project includes conference papers and scientific articles, but also meetings and seminars to discuss and share results from the Norwegian and international cases with relevant actors in the national and regional support system.