In this brief interview, we engage with Hanne-Mette Kristensen, the CEO of The Life Science Cluster in Norway. Addressing the topic of talent attraction, Kristensen delves into the changing landscape in Norway over the past two decades, emphasizing the increased demand for skilled professionals in the biotech sector. She explores challenges related to attracting international talent and discusses the cluster's strategies for talent development.
This is close to my heart. The Nordic countries one by one are quite small, but as a region, The Nordics are comparable to other strong biotech regions when it comes to both population, scientific base, broader industrial competence, and pipeline. This gives critical mass and international visibility. Nordic collaboration has two equally important sides. First, life science is about creating solutions to some of society’s largest challenges. It is capital- and competence-intensive. It makes sense to learn from each other and create best practices to succeed and bring solutions to the market. Secondly, from the cluster’s perspective, we also focus on life science as a national industry. On this side, we can also learn from each other. How do we as nations work to support industry, and what types of support and bottlenecks are there for growth and being attractive as a region for industrial development? By taking the Nordic perspective, we can learn from each other and release more solutions, more jobs, and more export.
We have different types of collaborations. Over the last five years, we have led a joint Nordic collaboration with a pavilion at BIO International in USA. Being abroad, we get a critical mass for international visibility. A positive side effect is that the Nordic companies and players know each other better, creating more intra-Nordic interactions. Right now, we are part of a large Interreg ØKS project with 11 partners, “Life Science Academy”, which has industrial competence in the Nordics as focus.
There have always been strong bonds between Gothenburg and Oslo, as two cities only 4 hours apart. Very often, things materialize through concrete projects, and various such projects have been running both in life sciences and health technologies. Two years ago, the crown prince and crown princess visited Stockholm and Gothenburg, and as part of this, we as clusters organized a round-table together with AZ Bioventure Hub and GoCo. People from academia, industry and organizations discussed with one another, and several initiatives are materializing as a result. As one, the AZ Bioventure Hub’s services and related organizations are very relevant for several pipeline companies in Oslo. Norway has strengths in areas like immunology, oncology, and health tech, and it makes sense to continue strengthening the bonds.
The last two decades, there has been a dramatic change in how we nurture and develop academic projects to professional biotechs competing on the international scene. Through this, our need for people with right competence has increased dramatically. The solution to this is both attracting international talent and leadership from abroad and developing international level talent in Norway. We have a focus on both. Two challenges we have seen on the international talent side are time and tax. The paperwork takes too long time and tax levels are not pro talent mobility. We know that EU have focus on those areas and find it interesting to look at the regulations EU have set to increase mobility, while Norway has chosen to put additional tax on higher income.
Our cluster works on talent from three angles: being exposed for industry opportunities already in the first academic education, a strategic look at workforce development and making it easier to attract international talent. All three are equally important, and we are working with both academic and industrial members, as well as with sister organizations the government.