Innovation services for researchers and students

We help researchers and students to mature early-stage ideas. We provide tailored guidance, seed funding, meeting places, courses, and more.?

Webform for requests

Our services are open to employees and students at UiO. To reach out to us, please read about our services below and then fill out the form in Norwegian or English. You have to log into the form with your FEIDE account. Requests are read continually by our innovation advisers. They will normally get back to you within five working days. All employees in the Growth House have a duty of confidentiality.

Tailored guidance

When you contact us through the webform, our innovation advisers will give you guidance based on your needs. For example, they can help you:

• to assess the maturity and relevance of your idea, and whether guidance from mentors or others could be useful for the project; and to assess?your thoughts on the way forward, and more
• to decide whether your project could benefit from seed funding from us, and how this funding could be used
• to decide if you need support to apply for external funding to mature your idea
• to decide?whether you should apply for admission to?UiO:Life Science's innovation programme SPARK Norway?or SPARK Social Innovation
• to decide whether you could benefit from collaborating with others within our innovation ecosystem. We will help you get in touch with relevant businesses and other actors that your project may benefit from.
• to decide?which of our meeting places, seminars and competence courses it could be useful for you to attend

Medical Device Guidance

Researcher at UiO can access out online service Medical Device Guidance to get an overview of the processes you have to go through to ensure that your device is developed according to regulatory requirements in EU step-by-step. Read more about the service.

Funding

Call seed funding for UiO researchers

Call aimed at faculty staff, clinicians, postdocs, and PhD students) who are (i) employed at the University of Oslo (UiO) and (ii) have an innovative idea, or are working on an early-stage technology or service may apply for seed funding from us.

• In 2025 NOK 1.7 million was granted through the UiO Growth House seed funding call
• The UiO Growth House also manages the call for the UiO innovation funds. NOK 5 million was announced in 2026.
• See the overview of internal innovation funding at UiO

Ongoing seed funding for researchers

Note that researchers may also receive seed funding from us on an ongoing basis as a part of the tailored guidance described above if this is required to accelerate the development of the idea.?The UiO Growth House has dedicated NOK 1.5M annually for this. Please fill out?this webform?to get in touch with our innovation advisers.

Reporting requirements funding

At the end of the funding period, the main applicant must submit a short report to the Growth House using our online reporting form.?

Innovation Coffee Time

From spring 2025 researchers at three departments at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences ¨C biosciences, chemistry and pharmacy ¨C have been offered in-house innovation guidance from the UiO Growth House. Researchers can drop in or schedule a meeting to discuss innovation ideas or get information on courses, events and funding opportunities. Researchers form other institutes are welcome to come by.

• Read more about the service and when and where our innovation advisers are present.

Innovation hangouts and conference for academia and industry

We organise quarterly afternoon/evening innovation hangouts. This is an informal meeting place where students and researchers from UiO can interact with actors from the public sector, hospitals, companies, mentors, business clusters and incubators within our innovation ecosystem. We provide inspirational talks, talks from role models, matchmaking, food and beverages, and mingling.

We also host the annual Science Impact conference as part of Oslo Innovation Week.

• See overview of upcoming and previous events.

Innovation courses

The UiO Growth House innovation courses

The UiO Growth House has developed courses that will increase innovation competence among researchers, including PhD candidates and postdocs, and other staff.

• Read more about the courses, see the overview of upcoming courses and sign up.

Other courses

• The UiO Growth House is in charge of the School of Health Innovation?at the University of Oslo.?Since the start in 2016, more than 350 young health science researchers have received training in health innovation through the school. In 2025 and 2026 we are working on the course content and securing funding to run the school further as a Nordic initiative. Read more about the school.
• In Aleap bootcamp the UiO Growth House collaborate with the health incubator Aleap and the technology transfer office Inven2 where researchers learn about the path from idea to market with topics within value proposition development, regulatory process and intellectual property strategy, fundraising, organizational governance and pitching.?In 2026 we are working to further develop the bootcamp.