Background information

SIVA - The Industrial Development Corporation of Norway - is a governmental corporation founded in 1968. It is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and aims to develop strong regional and local industrial clusters through facilitating a national infrastructure for innovation consisting of incubators, business gardens, catapult centres, innovation enterprises, innovation centres and industrial real estate. The aim of SIVA is to improve national infrastructure for innovation.

SIVA is part of the national incentive structure for innovation, alongside Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council.

The support instrument is available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

COVID-19 response

Businesses using one of SIVA's services and programmes, including incubators and business gardens, are exempted from the usual rule of having to fund at least 25% of the investment themselves from March 2020.

Content of measure

SIVA's main objective is to contribute to the achievement of the Norwegian government’s policy goals in remote areas, and within this framework contributes to unleash innovation capability and increase wealth creation in all parts of the country.

SIVA operates within four areas:

• As a professional property developer, SIVA develops ways in which industrial premises can be adapted to regional needs. This reduces some of the risks faced by new companies, and reduces their capital expenditure.
• SIVA is also engaged in multiple-use premises; here, it develops activities that aim to facilitate synergy among companies.
• SIVA owns and establishes incubators together with several industrial companies and runs a national program for incubators.
• SIVA is a shareholder in a number of strategic investment and development organizations. Its goal here is to increase employment levels and enable business opportunities to emerge.

The SIVA structure is made up of 40 business parks, 33 incubators, five Catapult centers, 74 innovation companies and 40 real estate companies.

In response to COVID-19, SIVA funding increased by NOK 40 million (€3.8 million). From 2020, the regional governments (fylkeskommunene) formally commission the incubator and business garden programs.

SIVA cooperates with Innovation Norway, the Research Council of Norway, and a number of regional partnership organizations, universities and research institutions.

Use of measure

More than 500 companies get access to the networks, partners, expertise and facilities of SIVA.

SIVA fosters a large innovation system. More than 1,500 stakeholders, including private investors, industrial and financial corporations, companies, universities and other important R&D institutions, participate in its activities. SIVA functions as an exchange for sharing approaches to industry and innovation. SIVA services more than 5,000 companies, and is a partner in more than 70 innovation companies, 40 real estate companies, and is present at more than 130 locations (SIVA, 2019). In total, more than 5,000 Norwegian companies currently benefit from SIVAs programmes, access to networks, competence or facilities.

As mentioned above, SIVA operates in four areas, where one of them involves properties. This part of the scheme was evaluated in 2015 (Menon 2015). The evaluation covered the following questions:

• Is property development relevant in order to facilitate innovation?
• Is the business well governed, organised and run?
• Has SIVA reached its goals?
• Is it profitable from a socio-economic point of view?

In short, the conclusions of this evaluation were:

• The development of a more professional property industry in Norway during the last 10 years has reduced the need for property investments as a public measure, but parts of the country and types of properties where commercial actors are absent still exist.
• SIVA is mainly well governed, organised and run, but it lacks an exit-strategy on investments. Also, synergy effects between the property part of its business and innovation part has been important, but not big enough.
• SIVA is profitable in a socio-economic perspective.

This scheme was evaluated in 2010, and the findings were mainly positive. It showed that SIVA contributes positively both to develop infrastructure (property) and foster innovation. It also found that there was a demand for the services it provides. The scheme was also evaluated in 2015 which showed, as indicated above, that SIVA is well governed, organised and run and profitable in a socio-economic perspective

Weaknesses: Funds do not always meet demand; greater funding is required in areas such as participation in regional partnerships and fostering innovation.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies Local / regional government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 01 April 2010: Infrastructure makes a difference (Infrastruktur gjør forskjell) (www.regjeringen.no)
• 01 April 2010: Infrastruktur gjør forskjell Evaluering av SIVA 2002-2018 (www.regjeringen.no)
• 01 January 2012: Meld. St. 22 Verktøy for vekst – om Innovasjon Norge og SIVA SF – om Innovasjon Norge og SIVA SF (www.regjeringen.no)
• 25 January 2015: Evaluering av eiendomsvirksomheten til SIVA (siva.no)
• 28 October 2022: SIVA (www.siva.no)
• 28 October 2022: SIVA - Information in English (siva.no)
• 28 October 2022: Norwegian Catapult Programme - information in English (norskkatapult.no)