I4Health becomes a limited company
I4Health, the upcoming centre for innovation and services within the Norwegian health care sector, will now become a limited company. The decision was made by the University Board on Wednesday.
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The unanimous decision by the University Board means that the work on establishing a board for the company now can start so a general manager can be hired. The centre is scheduled to be ready on 30 August this year.
The centre itself is created to catalyse and accelerate needs-oriented innovation of health and caregiving services in Norway in a time where demands increase faster than public sector budget limits.
Future health services
Concurrent with an increasing need for services, the digitalisation and technological development open up new possibilities for providing services that are more cost-effective and of higher quality. However, development of reliable, safe and user-friendly tools and services requires project teams with different expertise and experience: from universities to research institutes, business sector companies, state and municipal sector, private sector and not least people with user experience. Therefore, it has been decided that the University of Agder’s effort in this area will be organised as a limited company.
Strengthens health research and education
The new I4Health centre is currently under construction on the university’s Campus Grimstad. For UiA, the reasons for this location are the current study programmes in healthcare and the academic environments already present on the campus. The two centres Centre for eHealth and Centre for Caring Research South will be part of I4Health. Beyond health science environments, academic environments connected to technology, especially information and communication technology, and academic environments within working life and innovation will be especially important for the centre. The close proximity to the MIL lab further strengthens the advantage of the centre being localised in Grimstad.
250 work spaces
The new premises in Grimstad are 4600 m2 and can house up to 250 work spaces in addition to test facilities. UiA will, depending on demand, sublet spaces to relevant collaboration partners and users for shorter or longer periods. Grimstad municipality is planning to rent premises from UiA in order to move parts of the municipality’s health and caregiving services to the centre. This will be an important corner stone of the centre.