4. COMMERCIALIZATION SYSTEM IN NORWAY
4.4 C OMMERCIALIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE IN N ORWAY
As an important step towards increasing competition of the nation state and substituting resource-based economy with more science-based one Norwegian government support universities in several ways encouraging direct commercialization of research. An important aspect characterizing Norwegian commercialization system is that commercialization activities take place outside the universities: at TTOs and research parks. According to Stankiewicz‟ classification (1986 cited in Gulbrandsen & Smeby, 2005a:122), this characteristic can be referred to as “externalism”. The idea behind this system is the assumption that basic research and commercialization are complementary and
interdependent, but too different activities to be organized at one place. As a result, networks of buffering institutions are established on university campuses to absorb knowledge
produced at the universities, and transfer it to the outside world.
Bugge, Rasmussen and Holstad (2003) give important information regarding commercialization entities in Norway. They note that unlike the US system, where
commercialization institutions are well integrated in the university system, their Norwegian counterparts are relatively free from the universities they serve. It should be mentioned that by the time this report was written, research parks were the only commercialization entities in Norway as TTOs were established little later, following the legislative changes. Therefore, the authors refer to the four research parks functioning at four university campuses. These are
Forskningsparken AS at the University of Oslo; Forinnova at the University of Bergen; Leiv Eriksson Nyfotek at the Norwegian University of Technology and Natural Sciences (NTNU), and Forskningsparken of Tromsø AS at the University of Tromsø. Bugge and his colleagues (ibid.) maintain that the advantage of these institutions is that they already exist and possess a number of useful facilities. However, the authors also point to the fact that research parks have some other interests beside the university generated intellectual property, which can lead to the conflict of interests. They also question the efficiency of the support provided by external organizations especially in the first phases of commercialization. This doubt is grounded in the increasingly recognized assumption that commercialization processes should be an integrated part of university in order to be success. That is why Bugge and his
colleagues (ibid.) suggest that now that universities become responsible for commercializing research, they should decide to what degree they are willing to use existing
commercialization entities and eventually consider building up their own supportive institutions4.
As noted previously, creation of spin-offs is generally considered a more efficient and productive channel for knowledge commercialization than licensing to established firms.
This is even more urgent in the case of Norway. According to Bugge et al. (2003), licensing of academic patents to established firms often results in that university based inventions move abroad because there is a limited private sector in Norway capable of absorbing the university knowledge. In this light establishing spin-off firms on university inventions rather than licensing to foreign firms seems to be more reasonable in order to keep new
technologies in the country (ibid.). Licensing, on the other hand, is a traditional way in which technology has been transferred to the private sector. This system has its advantages.
According to Lockett and Wright (2005), in case of licensing universities utilize technology without academics committing large amounts of time to commercial activities. However, recently policymakers started considering spin-off creation to be more promising than licensing. The most important reason to think so is that university generated ideas and technology in most cases need further involvement of academics to be developed, and
4 The report by Bugge et al. was written in 2003 right after legislation changes addressing commercialization. TTOs were not established yet.
establishment of a spin-off company is the best way to keep academic participation in the development process of the idea/technology.
4.5 Summary
Based on the description above, we can assume that Norwegian approach to
commercialization policies is “top-down” or initiated by government. The recent Norwegian government policies strongly focus on direct research commercialization at research
institutions and reflect the global trends that dominate in commercialization policies
worldwide. First was the legislative changes from the very beginning of 21st century, aiming to include research commercialization within the main missions of the universities. The second was the annulling of the “teacher exemption clause”, which granted rights on
inventions to the institutions. Both policy regulations can be viewed in light of global policy trends.
The Norwegian government supports and facilitates commercialization in different ways: the most important initiative launched by government is the FORNY program, which addresses different levels of commercialization. SkatteFunn is another mechanism promoting
commercialization activities. It strengthens collaboration between research institutions and industry, which is an important precondition for successful commercialization at universities.
Funding is yet another policy mechanism for government. By establishing a new funding model where basic funding has been tightened, institutions and academics got a signal to look for additional sources. Getting involved in direct commercialization processes is promising with this respect as well.
The next chapter aims at providing a picture of how the University of Oslo (UO) has responded to recent policy changes. The university attitude towards increasing government focus on commercialization will be discussed through the analysis of its strategic papers and commercialization infrastructure.