Pictured is Björgólfur Hávarðsson from NCE Seafood and Helge Bjordal, sales manager at Nagelled.
The article was first published on kyst.no by Ole Andreas Drønen
The gift aimed at entrepreneurs in aquaculture contains practical entrepreneurial assistance in a number of areas in addition to a cash prize.
A professional jury consisting of key personnel from contributors Deloitte, Nagelld, NCE Seafood, DnB, Annerledeslandet, Acapo, ArtGarden, NCE Aquatech and Stiim Aqua Cluster will review the applications. The company they believe is the most exciting will win this year's Entrepreneur Christmas present.
The prize should give the winner a unique opportunity to launch and commercialize a new idea, product or service for the aquaculture industry.
– It was almost like nothing happened this year, but things fell into place and we have extended the application deadline to mid-January, says Helge Bjordal from Nagelld – one of the organizations behind the Founders' Gift.
Address important issues
This means that entrepreneurs and start-up companies with good, creative, effective and sustainable ideas that can help move the aquaculture industry forward have until January 17 to submit their ideas on the Gründerpresangen website.
Björgólfur Hávarðsson from NCE Seafood tells Kyst.no that he hopes to see companies that attack important issues in the industry.
– We are looking for those who want to do something different, whether it is about digitalization, or for example, addressing the microbiological problems we have in the aquaculture industry. New methods for attacking sea lice are an example of a topic that is always exciting.
New projects are flourishing
Hávarðsson and Bjordal further say that they hope to see exciting, new projects among the candidates applying to the competition.
– Despite the fact that 2020 has been a really difficult year for many startups, you can see that many companies have used their time wisely and that they have taken their innovation journey one step further. They have simply been given time and peace to develop, points out Hávarðsson.
Bjordal agrees with his jury colleague, and says the pandemic year has probably given people the opportunity to think more innovatively than they might have originally intended to do.
Want a high level
The format of the Entrepreneurial Gift will be different this time in that the candidates will be presenting digitally, which does not necessarily have to be a negative.
– It opens the doors for people from all over the country to participate easily. So we hope people will take note of it and take advantage of the opportunity, points out Bjordal.
Both Hávarðsson and Bjordal emphasize that they hope that the candidates have such good projects that they will make the job difficult for the jury members.
– There are many environments in Norway that are good at preparing candidates and helping them with pitching and the like, so the level of candidates has risen steadily in recent years, and we hope that will continue, Hávarðsson points out.
The winner will be presented at the Aqkva conference on April 29th – and work for the winner will begin immediately after that.
Read more and apply at www.grunderpresangen.no
