A word from the CEO

2025 marks an important anniversary for Inven2 – it is 15 years since we were established. Over these years, we have been on an impressive journey together with researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and many other partners both within and beyond the innovation ecosystem. Together, we have built one of Norway’s most significant environments for commercialisation of research and innovation within life sciences and other research disciplines.

Within clinical studies, we have continued to broaden our footprint, and we are particularly pleased that we are now also supporting Helgeland Hospital Trust and Helse Møre og Romsdal Hospital Trust. In this way, we can help ensure that an increasing number of regions across Norway are able to participate in – and benefit from – clinical studies, to the benefit of patients, clinicians, and the Norwegian healthcare system as a whole.

Photo: Inven2 / Moment Studio

Another important milestone is that Inven2 has now become self-financing through our contribution to value creation. This is proof for the model: we are successful in helping research and ideas from early phase through to commercial pathways that generate returns to society as well as to new innovation projects. At the same time, we recognise that this is a challenging landscape. Typically, only a few of the many projects and companies we work with will achieve real commercial success — yet these few demonstrate the enormous value that can be created when everything aligns.

A key part of our role is to reinvest what we earn into new innovation; in total, we have invested NOK 116 million in new companies. This capital has been particularly important over the past four years, during which access to capital for entirely new companies has been extremely challenging. There has been a clear shortage of early-stage funding, while public investment in this part of the innovation chain has often been limited in volume as well as efficiency. In this context, Inven2’s capital, expertise, and willingness to assume risk have been crucial in enabling several promising companies to be established and further developed.

We are now beginning to see the contours of the next phase. It is particularly encouraging that several of the start-ups we have supported will initiate Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies during 2026. The fact that ideas originating as research results at Norwegian institutions are now moving into clinical testing is compelling proof that the innovation and commercialisation system works – it simply needs to operate at a much greater scale.

Finally, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone we have collaborated with in 2025: researchers, entrepreneurs, clinicians, leaders in the health trusts, technology transfer organisations, investors, funding agencies, and all other stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. Many have invested significant effort in building structure, professionalising processes, and strengthening collaboration across organisational boundaries. This work is absolutely essential if Norway is to succeed in developing new health and other industries based on our strong research base.

Thank you for your efforts over the past year. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in 2026 – with the ambition of helping even more research to be transformed into solutions that benefit patients, society, and industry.