The OECD Review of Norway’s Innovation Policy is part of a series of OECD country reviews of innovation policy (www.oecd.org/sti/innovation/reviews). It was requested by the authorities of Norway, represented by the Ministry of Education and Research, and was carried out by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation under the auspices of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP).

In the past century, Norway has experienced a remarkable transformation which has reshaped the country into one of the richest in Europe. Norway has demonstrated its ability to seize the initiative where opportunities arise, supporting the development of successful clusters in resource-based sectors, in particular in oil and gas (O&G), shipbuilding, fisheries and aquaculture. The revenues generated from these sectors became a driving force in the growth and technological upgrading of these sectors and helped to establish a virtuous circle for building strong, interlinked research and innovation capabilities.

This chapter presents an overall assessment of Norway’s innovation system and policy, reflecting the key findings of the review. It identifies strengths and weaknesses and key issues for innovation policy, and develops specific policy recommendations for improving Norway’s performance in science, technology and innovation.

This chapter discusses macroeconomic and framework conditions in Norway and the state of innovation capabilities and performance outcomes of the Norwegian innovation system. The first part presents macroeconomic and social developments and highlights salient features of the Norwegian economy, patterns of structural change and entrepreneurship. The second part looks at the current state of indicators of innovation inputs and outputs. It also compares Norway’s innovation capacities to other relevant OECD countries in order to highlight qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Norway’s innovation system.

This chapter discusses the state-of-the-art and potential of the higher education sector to develop excellent academic communities, which is one of the three overarching objectives of the government’s Long-Term Plan. The first and second parts describe this sector and research performance. The third and fourth parts focus on the initiatives to improve research excellence via higher education institutions’ external and internal structural changes and dedicated public interventions. The chapter concludes with a synthetis of the achievements to date and remaining challenges in achieving excellence and presents some high-level conclusions.

This chapter discusses the state-of-the-art and potential of public research institutes, universities and business firms to contribute to enhancing competitiveness and innovation capacity in Norway, which is one of the three overarching objectives of the government’s Long-Term Plan. The chapter first describes the main features of public research institutes and their performance before addressing the governance and policy aspects affecting this sector. The second part analyses the structural conditions for and performance in commercialising universities’ research, and the policy to support these activities. The third part on business firms addresses their innovation capacity using various proxies and a discussion of the innovation policy. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of the achievements to date and remaining challenges for enhancing competitiveness and innovation and present some high-level conclusions.

This chapter discusses the state-of-the-art and potential of the Norwegian research and innovation system to address major challenges facing society, which is one of the three overarching objectives of the government’s Long-Term Plan. The first and second parts analyse respectively the investment and progress towards achieving this objective. The third part focuses on the strategies and policies supporting actors involved in these activities. The last section presents a synthesis of the achievements to date and remaining challenges in tackling societal challenges through research and innovation and public sector innovation in Norway and presents some high-level conclusions.

This chapter discusses the state-of-the-art and potential of the science, technology and innovation system governance framework to provide strategic orientations and ensure the necessary co-ordination to achieve the three overarching objectives of the government’s Long-Term Plan. It begins with an overview of the historical evolution of science, technology and innovation governance and policy in Norway. It then examines the main current policy actors and governance arrangements, before assessing the added value of the LTP as a strategic plan and co-ordination instrument. The last section synthetises the achievements to date and remaining challenges in improving science, technology and innovation system governance in Norway.