大象传媒

Welcome to the UiB Innovation Day on 19th of September! The event will highlight research and innovation across all UiB faculties, showcasing some of the most exciting projects at the university, with the aim of strengthening collaboration between research and society.

• Read about the first Innovation Day that took place in 2024 here

This event is part of 鈥� Western Norway鈥檚 yearly innovation festival that runs from 15鈥�21 September 2025.

The Innovation Day will also mark 200 years of research and innovation in Bergen, including a special anniversary exhibition in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the University Museum of Bergen.

Program

(subject to updates)

09:00 鈥� 09:45: Festival opening and keynote speech by Dr. Michael Doser, MIT and CERN.

(in English)

Michael Doser is a senior research physicist at CERN who has been active mainly in the field of antimatter physics and quantum sensing. He was the co-founder and spokesperson from 2010 to 2022 for the AEgIS experiment, which aims to measure the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter, particularly antihydrogen. Since 2022, he has been spearheading efforts to apply quantum sensors to high energy (and low energy) particle physics and is now the spokesperson of the related and newly created DRD5 collaboration consisting of 112 institutes. He is also editor for Physics Letters B, a science communicator, and has been involved for many years in numerous interdisciplinary, public, and art-related activities.听

Fundamental research aims to understand the Universe, from the smallest to the largest scales. This requires actively developing and more often inventing technologies capable performing the highly demanding observations and experiments. Without the fundamental research motivation, these oftentimes creative novel developments would not necessarily take place, as incremental improvements can only take a technology so far; breakthroughs require new approaches, which then can result in new (and improved) ways of building devices with greatly enhanced performances. This is a high-risk process, with little guarantees of success, and which industries are reluctant to pursue. Thanks to fundamental curiosity-driven research like that at CERN, however, a number of breakthroughs have resulted in technology inventions and dissemination, but also in a highly educated, technologically expert population that can bring that expertise to fruition in the countries they end up working in. In this presentation, a few highlights of this dissemination process will be given, but also a glimpse into technologies that are still nascent but will form the backbone of future experiments and industrial processes.

09:45 鈥� 10:30: 200 second pitches 鈥� short talks about inspiring innovation activities at UiB

(in English)

1.听听 听Uncovering the Legal Relevance of Mental Disorders Through Innovative Research Approaches
Professor Linda Gr枚ning, Faculty of Law

2.听听 听BearCoat
BearCoat is a ski wax pilot project inspired by how ice slides right off polar bear fur, even after icy swims in the Arctic. Analyses have identified components in the fat from polar bear hair with promising de-icing properties. These are, of course, natural, biodegradable, and free from environmentally harmful PFAS substances, that unfortunately continue to appear on ski trails.
Professor 脴yvind Halskau, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology.听

3.听听 听Clinic of the Future: Designing Dialogues for Care
The Clinic of the Future is an invitation to engage in dialogue about what the future of care could be. In this project, I explore new, art- and design-inspired communication methods, with the goal of questioning, challenging, and reimagining how we practice care within medicine. Can these methods help us better understand the care needs of patients? Can they help us shape the future of care?
Amy Van Den Hooven, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design

4.听听 听SAMLA 鈥� Digitisation of Norwegian Folklore Archives
Professor Kyrre Kverndokk, Faculty of Humanities

5.听听 听Project JellySafe: Outsmarting Jellyfish to Protect Salmon Farms
Project JellySafe addresses the growing threat of harmful jellyfish blooms to Norwegian salmon farming. By combining marine biology, technology, and aquaculture expertise, it develops innovative tools for detection, monitoring, and mitigation to protect fish health.
Dr Luis Felipe Martell Hernandez, Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen

6.听听 听DogBiTE, a platform for immunotherapeutic treatment of cancer in dogs and humans
Professor Emmet Mc Cormack, Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine

7.听听 听When AI Joins the Team: Inez as a Creative Collaborator
Inez is a dialogic, talking chatbot designed to support and enhance creative co-creation in group work. Developed in partnership with Capgemini, Inez is part of the AI-CREATE research project, which explores how generative AI is transforming creativity, learning, and innovation at individual, team, and organisational levels.
Dr Ingunn Johanne Ness, SLATE, Faculty of Psychology

8.听听 听Innovating Child Protection: The Role of Animals and Children's Voices
Children and young people involved in child welfare cases often experience that it can be unsafe and difficult to express their opinions. In collaboration with practitioners, researchers are working to test methods that improve children's participation in the child welfare system. .听
Professor Marit Skivenes, Department of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences

10:30 鈥� 11:00: Coffee break and exhibitions

11:00 鈥� 11:45: Parallel Sessions:听

(In English)

• How to balance publishing and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR)?听
• 鈥淟iving labs鈥� for challenge-driven innovation听
• Design sprint using a case from a Bergen-based start-up听
• Green Region Vestland: industrial symbiosis and collaboration with UiB

11:45 鈥� 12:45: Lunch and exhibitions

12:45 鈥� 13:30: Help! How Do We Become Innovative? Professor Lars Nyre, Faculty of Social Sciences

(in Norwegian)

Society now expects universities to contribute to innovation. Many academics find this expectation burdensome and prefer to bury their heads in the sand, hoping the issue will go away. But this expectation of usefulness isn't going anywhere.
With the vast knowledge we generate and all the young minds we send into the workforce, universities hold enormous innovation potential. We must supplement our excellent research and teaching with equally strong innovation.
In this session, Professor Lars Nyre offers a proposal on how this can be achieved and invites a discussion on his suggestions.
(Read more about Nyre鈥檚 position in the article 鈥� in Khrono, 28 March 2025.)

13:30 鈥� 14:00: Coffee break and exhibitions

14:00 鈥� 14:15: Presentation of the UiB Id茅 2025 Award

(in Norwegian)

14:45 鈥� 15:00: Closing keynote speech

(in Norwegian)

After the formal programme, there will be an opportunity for mingling and socialising.

Why Participate?

• Grow your network: Meet potential partners from industry and the public sector, as well as researchers across faculties. This is a valuable opportunity to connect and initiate new collaborations.
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• Gain insight into how you can further develop your innovation idea 鈥� and discover the support opportunities available along the way.
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• Get inspired: Attend exciting talks, panel discussions and workshops focusing on how UiB鈥檚 research and innovation can help solve societal challenges. Topics such as social innovation, Living Labs and innovation methodologies will inspire new thinking in both research and teaching.
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• Showcase your work: Take the opportunity to present your research projects and innovative ideas. The exhibition area provides a platform for displaying interesting prototypes and ongoing projects.