Mandate and owners

Inven2 is a limited liability company owned by the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, and was established to administer the commercial potential of inventions and work results of these two institutions and all the health trusts in the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.

The background to the establishment of technology transfer offices in Norway was a series of legislative amendments introduced in 2003 and 2004. Amendments were then made to the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges, which clarified the universities’ general responsibility for the dissemination and ‘application of scientific methods and results’ in society. The Act respecting the Right to Employees’ Inventionswas also amended and the exception that applied to teachers was repealed. This means that it is the employers who have the ownership rights to the inventions of their employees, also at universities. Researchers also became obliged to report potential inventions, and the universities became responsible for administering the inventions in society’s best interest.

Inven2 was established in 2010 through the merger of Medinnova, Rikshospitalet Hospital’s technology transfer office and Birkeland Innovasjon, the technology transfer office at the University of Oslo.

In connection with the merger, it was decided that Oslo University Hospital was to own half of Inven2 on behalf of the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and that Inven2 was to serve all the health trusts that fall under the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.

The University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital each own 50% of Inven2. This means that all income must be ploughed back into new research and innovation.

Inven2’s mandate from the very start has been to administer two business areas:

  • Commercialisation of inventions
  • Administration of clinical trials

In 2016, Inven2 was given the responsibility for clinical trials and financial follow-up at the University Hospital of Northern-Norway. In 2021, Inven2 was also given the responsibility for Nordland Hospital.

 

Read more about policy for intellectual property rights at: the:

.

– University of Oslo

– Oslo University Hospital (in norwegian)