Ep. 245 - Hege Barnes, Director of Americas at Innovation Norway on Green Tech, Clean Tech, EVs, and Startup Innovations

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Hege Barnes, Director of Americas at Innovation Norway. Hege and I talk about the new innovations in green tech, clean tech and electric vehicles, as well as how Norway is working with startups to help grow and support innovation, both inside Norway and around the world. 

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Interview Transcript with Hege Barnes, Director of Americas at Innovation Norway

Brian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest. Today with me is Hege Barnes. She's the Regional Director for Americas at Innovation Norway. Welcome Hege. 

Hege Barnes: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. 

Brian Ardinger: Hey, we're excited to have you as well. We got connected after the Will Ferrell Superbowl ad for GM, where Will declared that he was coming after Norway. And so, we wanted to set the record straight and go straight to the source and see what's actually happening when it comes to the world of Innovation in Norway. So, what is Innovation Norway? 

Hege Barnes: Yeah, the whole EV campaign with Will Ferrell was sort of funny though. And we were very, very happy to tag along in that and sort of play along and have some fun. But it is actually true the way that we develop the country and the green innovations, our slogan is Powered by Nature. You that's how we live and that's how we develop our destination.

But Innovation Norway. Yeah. It's the government entity for trade and industry. So, we are sort of the trade council Invest in Norway. We are the tourist boards and the development agency for Norway. We help companies from birth to success, the growth, the global success. So, we have offices all over Norway and in 30 countries I think, all over the world. We work very efficiently within the unique sort of competence areas that we have in Norway, where we see that we are stronger than have competitive advantages.

And then we matched that with the opportunity areas in the markets we are in. So, I'm representing America. Ee look at what's happening in the US, Canada, and Brazil in particular. Looking at all the developments and matching that with what companies and where we can compete and use our resources efficiently.

Brian Ardinger: That makes a lot of sense. And obviously, probably a lot of us aren't familiar with everything that's going on within Norway, where you hear of, you know, green tech and clean tech and a lot around the electric vehicles. I think you're the largest market share of electric vehicles in the world. And I believe you're also expanding into other areas like the first, fully electric autonomous container ship. So, what's happening in Norway that makes it this destination or a testination for some of the new technologies when it comes to green and cleantech. 

Hege Barnes: Based on again, what I said, it it's like this powered by nature sort of mentality that we have after we discovered oil and became this big offshore industry. We are now saying that we need to move beyond that. We need to transition from an industry heavily dependent on fossil fuel into new green technologies, into new greener solutions. So, in addition to the whole offshore industry sort of technology and deep insights that we have, we also always been a seafaring nation and shipbuilding nation.

So, the whole Maritime’s there, the whole Innovation above the water and underwater has been aquaculture has been sort of core of who Norway is and our industry and the development that we've had. We live in a big country with a lot of space, but we had to innovate to sort of survive. 

And we built up the industry and we built our communities, basically the whole destination development over the last few years with this, the sort of as a fundament and we are a destination or a country that's full of smart engineers, you know. Engineers that are used to working in even harsh conditions, you know, half the country's above the Arctic circle.

We're working out deep into the ocean areas and underwater and cold-water temperatures. And we have the four, really four distinct seasons. We're used to working in tough conditions. And with this sort of engineering mentality, we have now shifted from sort of traditional industries into new technologies. New green technologies and solutions, smart solutions across sectors and industry as well.

And this has been driven a lot by the government. A lot of this is mandated by the government, by people themselves. People want a greener development. They want a sustainable development of our economy, our society, and our industries. So when they met, so this whole, the government policies meeting the locals demands and what has led to the Innovation in certain areas that has actually been very successful for us.

Brian Ardinger: Can you talk a little bit about some of the programs that have helped businesses or help entrepreneurs set up and, or get moving when it comes to this? What are some of the things that the Innovation Norway actually does? 

Hege Barnes: We can help companies. We have offices in all the different regions in Norway.  So, we can help companies fund and launch their programs. But we also build communities. We build ecosystems so we can fund clusters and networks and sort of smart Innovation groups, and from a research stage to actual commercialization stage. And these sort of clusters, they learn from each other. They learn and grow together. And we can fund this environment and help sort of support this environment.

We can also add competencies. You know, we have a qualified staff that can help companies scale and grow together with the industry. And this is probably the, the success of the model is to trust that we have in society. So, we work a lot with government and private industry. And private industry and government together actually makes things happen. And it makes it happen in a speedier fashion than a lot of other countries like here in the U S.

Brian Ardinger: So, are most of your programs focused on helping Norwegian companies get off the ground and move to the United States and get market share and that? Or are you working with companies like in other countries that want to work and build things in Norway? 

Hege Barnes: So, both, you know, we want this to help our smart sort of, the companies that comes from a green shipping cluster, you know, we see that they can win big contracts abroad. We work with the offshore wind development on the East coast here, you know, ...