DSC02190 The Value of being part of a Business Cluster
Research has shown that companies in business clusters typically have higher value creation, productivity and growth than the industry in general. It is also easier to generate change, entrepreneurship and innovation within clusters, with the cluster team playing an important role as facilitator.
Every day, we focus on strengthening interaction and collaboration between business, R&D and education between our cluster’s partners in the entire value chain.
Below you can read more about The Clusters major results in 2017. Our main focus in 2018 is to further develop our Cluster value added services to our Cluster partners.
Innovation ecosystems
The Seafood Innovation Cluster play’s an important role in the Norwegian ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship. In this ecosystem businesses in the clusters are spliced with R&D, business growth programs and funding schemes in order to contribute to further innovation, encouraged and facilitated by the cluster management.
Successful crossover
Benefits do not only arise within clusters; there is also much to be gained by more work across cluster boundaries in order to spark cross-industry innovation.
The program Oil and Gas meets Aquaculture has spurred many oil and gas companies’ interest in aquaculture as a new market for subsea technology. Among the participants in the program were companies delivering underwater sensors, underwater sensor systems and even companies taking part in applications for development permits, with complete new pen designs aimed at more optimal feeding systems, new manufacturing of metal structures, prevention of lice and prevention of escapees.
The Oil & Gas meets Aquaculture program between GCE Subsea and NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster has been a model crossover program proving that such cross-industry initiatives can bear fruits.
World-class help for start-ups
Bergen Teknologioverføring has grown to become one of the best incubators for start-ups in Norway. The Cluster is proud to be a partner of Ocean Industries Accelerator, an incubator for innovation companies in ocean industries. Due to our great innovative ecosystem, HATCH, the world’s first accelerator program in the aquaculture industry ask for a partnership with The Seafood Innovation Cluster and we are excited that the corhort with 8 startups are settled at Marineholmen.
AquaCloud, digitalization and new technology
The main value driver in salmon farming is the biology. Biology is complex with many parameters. Big data and artificial intelligence can contribute significantly to improving our understanding of these issues. The AquaCloud project led by the NCE Seafood Innovation cluster is a poster child example for digitalization within salmon farming. The project collects large amounts of data from farming sites every day which is sent to the cloud. IBM Watson analyzes the data and generates predictions and strategies for sea lice treatments using artificial intelligence. Data is provided by Lerøy, Marine Harvest, Grieg Seafood, Eide Fjordbruk, Lingalaks, Bolaks and Bremnes Seashore and The Institute of Marine Research. This project is built on the three key technological elements we mentioned; sensors/IoT, sky computing & big data, and artificial intelligence.
Read more about cluster activities in our Annual Report 2017 Annual Report 2017-forside