Innovation Norway (Innovasjon Norge)
Funds Innovation Norway, Norway's national agency helping firms innovate, expand, and build export-ready products.
Innovasjon Norge, or Innovation Norway, is Norway's national business development agency. It is structured as a special-law company owned 51 percent by the state through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and 49 percent by the county municipalities. Its mandate is to drive value-creating business development across Norway, and its own 2023 figures show NOK 7.1 billion in support to business through grants, loans, and guarantees, rising to almost NOK 8 billion when advisory and EEA-related support is included.
The grant side matters most here. Innovation Norway backs start-up grants, environmental technology grants, innovation contracts, Green Platform projects, Norwegian Innovation Clusters, export promotion, student entrepreneurship, bioeconomy, smart transport, and circular value chain work. The Environmental Technology Scheme funds development and demonstration projects at TRL 5-7, uses a continuous deadline, and pays out in three stages. Start-up Grants usually split into market clarification and commercialization phases, while the environmental technology line and several other schemes require co-financing or at least a credible external funding plan.
Its operating style is risk-sharing rather than pure subsidy. The agency applies state-aid rules, expects applicants to show commercial logic, and uses loans and guarantees alongside grants to bridge projects that are too uncertain for ordinary bank finance. That is why its best-fit applicants are Norwegian companies with scalable ideas, measurable environmental or market impact, and a route to private follow-on capital.