Access to capital

Jutta discussing and networking with partners

Oslo Cancer Cluster works to improve our members’ access to capital. We understand that funding is crucial for researchers, start-ups and small to medium sized companies. It takes time and a lot of funding to develop cancer treatments from bench to bedside.

 

OPEN CALLS

No current calls.

Private funding

One-to-one contact
We work directly with international Venture Capital (VCs), pharma representatives and business developers, presenting the different members and the cluster’s common pipeline within oncology. We do this through an extensive, exclusive network built over the years. We also offer tailored scouting events for pharma and licensing people upon request, and have hosted several visits over the years.

Meeting places
Oslo Cancer Cluster teams up with other clusters internationally, and hosts conferences where our members may present and do partnering with key oncology players. Our signature event in Europe; the European Cancer Cluster Partnering event is set up in collaboration with our French sister-cluster Cancer-Bio-Santé and is arranged every autumn since 2008.

Oslo Cancer Cluster has sponsored several international conferences such as EPIC and AngloNordic in London, giving our members the chance to present and do partnering with international key investors and licensing people through the sponsoring deal.

In the US we have developed the International Cancer Cluster Showcase in close collaboration with several US-clusters, focusing on showcasing emerging companies for the BIO-audience, at an exclusive one-day-prior to BIO event.

In Norway we have initiated the venture part of the DNB Nordic Health Care Conference. This conference also features emerging companies and pitching training.

Raising private funding
Through our member the Radium Hospital Research Foundation, we access a large network of national and international VC’s, among them an informal Nordic network of investors meeting biannually.

The Radium Research Foundation is a key investor in several of the Oslo Cancer Cluster member companies, often together with the two other investment companies Sarsia Seed and Birk Venture.

The Norwegian Cancer Society provides approximately 13 percent of all direct funding for cancer research in Norway. A list of open calls for research projects can be found here. Oslo Cancer Cluster works closely with the Norwegian Cancer Society on this.

Public funding

Investinor invests in biotech
Oslo Cancer Cluster and The Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Norway (LMI) have changed the mandate for the Norwegian public initiated investment company Investinor, so that they may invest in the biotech sector. Prior to 2012 biotech was not among the prioritized sectors for Investinor.

BIOTEK 2021
We have also been an active contributor to the Norwegian Research Council’s program BIOTEK 2021. In this work, we stressed that BIOTEK 2021 had to become more industry oriented and include health as a prioritized area.

Innovation Norway and the Research Council
We work closely with Innovation Norway on the funding side, both nationally and regionally. They enable several of our member companies to receive public support from the very beginning with start-up money to more mature funding schemes.  In 2017, Innovation Norway provided 10 million NOK through the programme Innovasjonsrammen – The innovation frame. This funding is for innovative collaboration projects in Norwegian clusters. Oslo Cancer Cluster received 1 million NOK of the innovation frame and opened a call for this funding in our member base.

We also work closely with the Reserach Council of Norway on several of their programs and initiatives, as well as on the EU initiatives Horizon 2020 and Eurostars.