Nominate your favorite innovation for the Nordic Innovation Award!

Are you part of an innovative and sustainable business – or are you passionate about promoting groundbreaking ideas that create a more sustainable future? Now is your chance to be the first to nominate a worthy winner of the brand new Nordic Innovation Award!

Background to the award

The prize is established by the Nordic patent and trademark offices, including the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO). Together we want to promote innovation that contributes to a more sustainable future, and to inspire others to develop innovative solutions. The Innovation Prize will be awarded for the first time in 2025.

The award will help create awareness and build expertise around the strategic use of IP-rights (primarily patents, trademarks and design registrations).

The Nordics focus on sustainability has contributed to groundbreaking ideas and inventions that benefit the climate, environment and society. The prize will recognize and reward sustainable innovation that has been granted rights such as patents, trademarks or design registration.

Who can participate?

The award is open to all small and medium-sized businesses and startups located in Norway and meeting these conditions:

  • Registered business entity in Norway (documentation required).
  • Less than 250 employees at the time of application
  • Is holder of at least one registered IP-right

Why participate?

  • Visibility: Gain recognition as a leading player in innovation and sustainability in the Nordics.
  • Network: Meet other innovative businesses and establish valuable contacts.

Criteria for participating

1. Level of innovation

The innovation must represent a novel and innovative approach, using cutting-edge sci-ence or technology, unique methodologies, or creative problem-solving strategies.

2. Sustainability impact

The innovation should have a positive impact on sustainability and contribute to one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

3. Measurable results and evidence of success

The innovation should form the basis of a viable business model and have the potential to scale across multiple geographic areas within the Nordic region or globally.

4. Measurable results and evidence of success

Innovations should present clear metrics or data showing their effectiveness and impact. Solutions that have already demonstrated some success, whether through sales revenue, market penetration, pilot programs, case studies, or proven methodologies, are pre-ferred.

5. Registered IP

The innovation has to have formed the basis for registered IP rights (patents, trade-marks or industrial design) in relevant markets.

The Nordic IP Offices acknowledge the value of strategic use of IP and the juries can take this into account as an extra dimension.

National and Nordic jury

Each of the Nordic countries has established a national jury with representatives from the business community and the national patent office. This jury selects one candidate to participate in the Nordic competition. A Nordic jury will then choose the final winner.

The Norwegian jury consists of the following:

Toril is Pro-Rector for Innovation at NTNU and a member of the Rector's leadership team. She is responsible for commercialization, TTO and student innovation and entrepreneurship. Member of the national reference group Horizon Europe (EIC, EIE, EiT: Innovation Norway/The Research Council of Norway), chair of the expert group for innovation under the European University Association (EUA) and member of Cesaer (universities of science and technology in Europe).

Tina is Division Director of Social and Business Development at Innovation Norway. She has extensive experience from the business world, including 18 years at Schibsted where she was, among other things, Head of Next Media and COO for Schibsted's Norwegian operations. She has also been Executive Vice President at Umoe, and has board experience from, among others, Posten Bring, Santander Consumer Bank, TV2 and smaller technology companies. She has previously been associated with StartupLab as a mentor/advisor. Tina Stiegler holds a Master of Science in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Børge is a senior advisor in an IP advisory company where Acapo and Onsagers have merged. He has 20 years of experience in intellectual property law with a focus on patents and a special interest in strategic/business aspects. He is a European patent attorney and chairman of the "Association of Norwegian IP Advisers" (FONIP).

Børge has a background as a civil engineer in electrical engineering, and he has broad experience from Norwegian research activities as a researcher and project manager at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and from Norwegian industry, including as a project and section manager at Alcatel.

Ingvild has been Director of Strategy and Public Relations at Nysnø since 2021. She was previously Program Director for the energy meeting place ONS with responsibility for strategy, content production and networking. She also has more than 10 years of experience in the energy industry through various roles related to energy market analysis, strategy and license follow-up at Petoro and Eni Norge. Meland has a Master of Science in Economics from Bergen School of Economics (NHH) with a specialization in economics. Ingvild has experience with board work from several industries, and is Honorary Consul for Finland in Stavanger. At Nysnø, Ingvild works with strategy and business development, communications and public relations.

Jan Morten is CEO of Siva. He holds a degree in civil engineering from NTNU, and has been CEO of Siva – a company for industrial growth since 2023. Jan Morten has previously been CEO of Store Norske in Svalbard and investment director at Investinor. He has also been CEO of the consulting company Safetec Nordics and vice president, Offshore Oil & Gas Solutions in Safetec's American parent company ABS Consulting. Ertsaas has extensive experience from the international oil and gas industry, and has held various management positions within project management, research, technology and knowledge management at Statoil. He has also been platform manager at Statfjord, and has international project management experience from a position as pipeline manager in Statoil's Pars project in Iran.

Salvador is the general manager of Intelis and a partner in Aggrator.

He holds an M.Sc. in Engineering from ETSEIB, an MBA from ICT in Barcelona and a Master in Corporate Finance from BI in Oslo. He has over 25 years of experience with innovation, technology and product development in Spain, Germany and Norway. The last 10 years He has been an independent analyst and advisor in the fields of innovation and technology management.
He is also a partner in Aggrator, the startup accelerator of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) with a focus on agrifoodtech and environmental technology. Salvador has previously taught innovation and IT at Østfold University College and has served on the organizing committee of AI+, Norway's largest conference on applied artificial intelligence, in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He is an active speaker and writes regularly in business and technology media such as E24, DN and Shifter, and on his own blog, salvadorbaille.com.

Kathrine has been Director of the Norwegian Industrial Property Office since January 2021, and is Deputy Chair of the Norwegian Export Council.

Kathrine holds a master's degree in political science from the University of Reading, UK, and the University of Oslo (UiO). She has extensive experience working in innovation, business and export strategy, and business establishment and scaling. She was one of the initiators of Birkeland Innovasjon in 2004, and was its innovation director for several years. She has been innovation director at the research and business park, IT Fornebu, and in 2009 established the health cluster Norway Health Tech.

The Norwegian jury

 

How can you participate?

Please send an email to Director Elisabet Mæland Fosse with information about the company and a description of the innovation based on the five criteria. If necessary, the jury will request additional information or a digital meeting.

It costs nothing to participate.

When does the award take place?

The registration deadline is 15 February 2025.

When does the award take place?

The national juries will select their candidate on 28 February 2025. The winner of the award will be selected on March 12.

The award ceremony will take place on April 10th at the Nordic Award Show in Copenhagen. Whoever is nominated by the Norwegian jury will be invited to this event.

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