IoT workshop in Oslo – about IoT initiatives and about Norway as moderate innovator

IoT and value networks

In april 2014 a one day IoT conference was held in Oslo organized by the “Internet of Things Value Creation Network”, this is an orgaization with the objective to bring together actors from different industry sectors, research and government. The conference title was:  Internet of Things Enabling Technologies – From Virtual Networks and Cloud Computing to Smart Integrated Communication Systems.

A number of Norwegian IoT projects were presented and there were special sessions about e-health and wireless networks, see full agenda here http://www.internet-of-things.no/iot_net_conference_02_april_2014.html

I was invited as speaker and gave a talk with the title: ICT transformation and Business model challenges for M2M and IoT services.

The talk was well received and many people in the audience recognized and confirmed the identified obstacles and barriers. Besides that some new contacts were established with e-health actors.
Norway as moderate innovator

The most interesting presentation was however not about IoT or value networks, it was about Norway as an actor on the R&D and Innovation arena. Anne Kjersti Fahlvik, executive director for innovation at the Norwegian Research council, presented clear evidence that Norway is not a leading country when it comes to innovation.

Norway is truly among the top countries in the world when it comes to GDP, productivity and level of employment. However when it comes to R&D and innovation Norway is found at much lower positions, this is confirmed by metrics like: the R&D share of GDP, number of patents, number of PhD exams, number of academic papers, number of innovative startups etc.

In Europe Norway is below the EU average at levels similar to southern European countries. The top positions are taken by Switzerland and the other Nordic countries. This was identified and presented as an issues of largest concern and no real explanation was presented.

Norway 1

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