MIT REAP in Oceans Industries

Due to the MIT REAP main project analysis of the Norwegian business ecosystem, the project will continue its work along two axes. One, to influence the Norwegian innovation policy and the other to focus on the inter-regional level working with three main initiatives.

At the national level the project will be working to influence and upgrade the national innovation policy. An important issue is to implement tax incentives for startups, as has been done in the UK, and this will be proposed for the Norwegian Parliament in June 2017. A National IDE Database (State of Norwegian Entrepreneurship) will also be implemented.

At the interregional and local level the project will build a 5-stakeholder ecosystem in the four Norwegian regions attending the project . Physical innovation houses will be established in all four regions and mentors made available. Linkages between the Innovation Houses across clusters and regions will be established.

Three project initiatives will be established covering all the four regions.

Summer School

Summer school is an offer to entrepreneurs who have run their businesses for a while, and now need to strengthen their expertise and develop their company to a new level. The project will be organised as a one-week "Summer School" with speakers from MIT REAP in Boston. The ambition is to invite 20 participants from each of the four regions - a total of about 80 people. The first workshop will be held in Ålesund, with MIT’s Bill Aulet as lecturer.

ScaleUp

The ScaleUp programme is for companies with growth potential, who are motivated to develop the company a big step forward. It can be illustrated as those companies who want to develop their business from a 3-5 customer business to an export business.

MIT has a strong focus on the companies that have growth abilities, motivation and potential. The plan is that the programme will run for 12 weeks, and each programme is estimated to be able to have 12 participants.

The ScaleUp accelerator is based on the MIT entrepreneurship model. First cohort is planned for early 2018, to be held in Stavanger, Boston and Bergen. Universities in all four regions will be invited to provide MIT-type scale-up course content for the accelerator programme.

Lab scale-up programme

In the Lab scale-up programme, entrepreneurs with great ideas will be given access to academic laboratories in the region. Laboratories, test and simulation centers will be made easily accessible and available for SME’s and entrepreneurs. The project will ensure financing and funding to cover costs - both a subsidised fee for entrepreneurs as well as costs with respect to access to laboratory facilities.