📋 Tender Overview
18 projects receive funding for research into biotechnology, ICT and nanotechnology. Among other things, researchers will find many methods to convert CO2 emissions from industry into sustainable feed, research into a more energy-efficient treatment of waste water and develop genes that can be used in the treatment of brain diseases.
Research and new methods are absolutely necessary to secure jobs and bring about the green transition we need. When researchers and business work together, we create solutions that can really take our society forward, says Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth.
Among other things, the University of Oslo receives NOK 15 million for a project where researchers will develop methods to develop therapeutic genes and make gene delivery easier and more efficient, with the aim of being able to treat brain diseases. By combining artificial intelligence with genetic engineering, they will try to predict and test therapeutic genes that can be adapted into vectors for gene delivery. The vectors will in turn be combined with ultrasound technology to help the genes pass the blood-brain barrier and reach the brain.
The University of South-Eastern Norway receives NOK 12 million for energy-efficient and sustainable wastewater treatment with the aim of using membrane biofilm reactors and enzyme biotechnology to develop technology that effectively removes organic micropollution, nitrogen and pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs). This also helps to limit the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance from wastewater.
SINTEF receives NOK 12 million for a project that will transform CO2 emissions from industry into sustainable feed for aquaculture using advanced technologies for carbon capture and microbial fermentation. The project aims to develop a two-stage fermentation process to meet the urgent need for environmentally friendly and economically sustainable solutions, in light of the climate crisis and the growing demand for sustainable feed.
SINTEF also receives support for a project to develop a new quantum sensor. Sensors are essential to digitization and artificial intelligence, as sensors "translate" the physical world's light, sound, heat and vibrations into digital signals. The new sensor will be very precise and can measure tiny changes in the environment. The new principle is complex and combines many new technologies such as precise material defects, ring resonators, waveguides and one-photon cascade detectors. The sensor must be able to measure stresses in mechanical constructions and eventually to many other types of measurements.
Biotechnology, ICT and nanotechnology have their origins in basic research and interdisciplinary collaboration in subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics, electronics and materials technology.
We need more knowledge and that knowledge is put to use more quickly. This will be important for strengthening Norwegian competitiveness. These projects are important for exploring the possibilities that lie in technologies with radical potential, says CEO of the Research Council Mari Sundli Tveit.
