News

NORSI Workshop 1 for Current and Potential Member Institutions

NORSI Workshop for new and Nordic NORSI institutional members took place 12 June 2019 at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway.

Introduction
NORSI is the Norwegian Research School in Innovation for doctoral students within innovation studies who enroll to take academic courses offered by NORSI and its partner institutions. The NORSI program commenced fall 2012 and is until summer 2020 funded in full by the Research Council of Norway.

From 2020 and onwards, NORSI plan to evolve into a Nordic initiative with member institutions in all Nordic countries that have relevant research milieus within innovation and entrepreneurship.

NORSI’s key missions are:
1. To work for the next generation of researchers within innovation and entrepreneurship by enhancing the innovation and entrepreneurial research education for doctoral candidates within Norway and the other Nordic countries.
2. NORSI will aim to further strengthen the Nordic and international connections in the innovation and entrepreneurship research community.

Workshop summary
Participants: Representatives from 25 Nordic institutions participated in this workshop about the future of NORSI – a Nordic Research School in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.We have received positive feedback about the workshop, and are excited about the interest and valuable comments we have received from potential institutions.

Next steps and letter of intent: The outcome of the workshop discussions will inform the next steps in the development and NORSI’ application to The Research Council of Norway for partial funding. Over the next weeks, we will summarize and solidify the potential NORSI model and structure. We also hope that those institutions that are intending to be part of NORSI will send in a signed letter of intent before 1 September 2019. All letters will be a part of the application to The Research Council of Norway in September.

Further input: As we continue with the development of NORSI, we will ask for further input on the research/ course/ areas of interest from interested institutions and potential contributions in terms of course specialties and faculty teaching etc. We will facilitate a workshop on this early next year.

Some key elements from the discussion:
 There is a strong need for a formalized organization of courses of high academic quality with the field of innovation and entrepreneurship
 The PhD educations within innovation and entrepreneurship in the Nordic countries are heterogeneous and complex, but still similar enough to launch a
common Nordic initiative
 The institutions vary greatly in size and have been 2 and 50 PHD student within the field of innovation and entrepreneurship
 A course portfolio should have both generalized and specialized courses, and be predicable in terms of scheduling, format, organization.
 Strong need for other networking activities such as student research conference, writing seminars etc.
 Valuable for faculty and students to develop consistent and good working relationships among the Norsi institutions
 There are different funding opportunities available, especially when considering the Nordic dimensions
 A membership fee of 50 000 NOK a year seems doable for most institutions

Workshop Themes
The core themes for discussion were:
• NORSI – a Nordic research school
• What is NORSI and how can contribute to your institution’s PhD education within the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship
• Future development of NORSI
• Membership benefits and contributions

Workshop Times
Workshop – 13:00 – 16:00 in A2-030
Dinner – 17:00 – 19:30 at XEast Restaurant (https://xeast.no/)

Workshop Final agenda
13:00 Welcome and introductions by Roger Sørheim, NORSI and NTNU
13:20 Presentations:
* “NORSI – an overview of the research school 2012-2020,” Birte M. Horn-Hanssen, NORSI
* «NORSI 2020 and onward – How can NORSI contribute to your institution’s PhD education within the fields innovation and entrepreneurship,” Roger Sørheim, NORSI
13:50 Discussion and questions about NORSI and membership
16:00 Adjourn
17:00 Dinner at Xeast