The Norwegian Research Council will grant NOK 850 million to industry innovation projects, which is the largest grant of its kind in history.

In 2013, the grant to innovation projects within the industry was on 700 million. The increase on 150 MNOK mainly comes from the Government’s strenghtening of the Research Council’s BIA program, a program for User-Driven Research Based Innovation.

Five Oslo Cancer Cluster biotech members obtained funding from the BIA program earlier this year.

“Funding for the biotech industry is hard to obtain in Norway. This increase in grants will make a difference for the biotech members of the Cluster. I am glad to see that the Government and Research Council support industry driven innovation,” Ketil Widerberg, General Manager of Oslo Cancer Cluster says in a statement.