Our annual report shows proof that the health tech ecosystem is maturing. International contracts and new offices abroad, stronger public-private collaborations and a record-breaking amount of EU funding are some of the achievements we have seen in the past year.

With a spike in chronic diseases, a demographic shift with an ageing population, and a shortage of health personnel as a backdrop; the need to use health technology to shape our future health care services is indeed an urgent one. At the same time we must build a robust industry at home and propel the exports out of Norway to make this shift sustainable.

Here are some key findings from our Annual Report 2023:

Export and internationalization

NHT has continued to expand its export activities in international markets, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth for the Norwegian health industry.

• Norway Health Tech was ranked highest among 19 clusters across disciplines on international relations and export opportunities
• 180 companies participated in our international activities.
• 60 companies entered into new contracts for sales, framework agreements, distribution, commercial agreements and reimbursements.
• 20 companies established offices abroad
• 25 companies initiated testing overseas

Public-Private collaboration

The health services need to transform their ways of working to be able to build the sustainable healthcare service of the future. Our contribution is to bring people together through matchmaking, meeting places, competence building, networking and collaboration.

• We launched our bi-annual Executive Leader Forum. This is our public- private meeting place for our members on the CEO level. The aim and focus are “how to speed up the digital transformation in the healthcare sector”. The Forum meets twice a year and attracts panelists and presenters from the Government, Key Opinion Leaders and other important stakeholders. By addressing topics raised by our members, and actively facilitating “Round table discussions” we aim to contribute to produce valuable outcome that can be used by the Top leaders in their own organizations. For Norway Health Tech the output is actively used in our Public Advocacy work towards Key opinion leaders nationally
• The Healthtech Festival took place on the 15th of June and positioned itself as an important meeting place for the health tech industry and the health care services. The festival was opened by state secretary Truls Vasvik, and the program was filled with top international speakers Dean Ho, a professor in biomedical engineering at the National University of Singapore, Ryan Mathew from Leads Teaching Hospital, Rafael Guerrero from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Nic Alexander from Imperial College NHS Trust.
• The project “Vekst i Viken”, funded by Viken Fylkeskommune, had over 13 events in 2023, with nearly 1000 participants aiming to strengthen public private collaboration. The project aim is to strengthen the industry in the regions of Viken and Oslo. This result was possible through close collaboration with i.e HelseHub Drammen, The Health Industry in the Viken and Oslo region, Oslo University Hospital, University of South-east Norway, OsloMet and Intelligent Health and other regional, national and international partners.

Scale Clinic

To support companies in scaling their solutions in the home- and international market, we have developed and launched Scale Clinic.

• We built a competence building platform for companies seeking advice on how to scale their business, Testing and market validation, Production, Market Access and more: Scale Clinic – Norway Health Tech

Member to member resource groups

2023 has been a year where the cluster has initiated new measures to unlock the flow of

competence between members of the cluster through resource groups. The groups have been formed to work within areas

which have strategic importance for the cluster:

• SaaS Solutions
• Public sector
• AI regulation
• Export for Sweden, Germany and UK
• Value-based healthcare

EU advisory and programs

The EU’s Horizon Europe Program is now well underway and soon reaching half its term so, it is time to take stock: Norway has been very

successful in raising EU funds. In 2023, Norway stood at 10th place among all eligible countries in the amount of funds raised from

the program.

• We provided EU funding advice to 68 organizations.
• Members are now participating in EU funded projects worth over 500 MNOK
• HoloCare was awarded a project of over 90 MNOK with 13 other partners, including SINTEF and Oslo University Hospital. This is one of the largest grants coming to Norway in recent years to develop the solution of a small company
• Invest4Health, a ca 5,5 MEUR project developing and testing novel financial models for health promotion and
  disease prevention. NHT is leading a work package developing a social franchise model.
• Nemonoor, a ca 6,5 MEUR project led by Digital Norway. The project is a national hub and EDIH (European Digital
  Innovation Hub) offering a complete set of services for the adoption of AI.
• NHT is also a partner in SMILE and Carematrix, two EU
  funded project starting earlier in 2022

Read the Annual Report 2023 here