OSLO CANCER CLUSTER SA

Their core work

Oslo Cancer Cluster is a Norwegian non-profit association that connects health and diagnostics SMEs with research institutions and digital technology providers. Their core contribution is orchestrating innovation networks — running EU Innovation Actions that link bioimaging, biosensing and biobanking companies to the wider medical diagnostics value chain. They do not perform laboratory research themselves; they build and coordinate the consortia and SME support mechanisms that bring scientific solutions to market. For businesses, they are a door into the Nordic oncology and diagnostics ecosystem; for researchers, they are a route to commercial partners.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Between 2016 and 2018, OCC worked as a participant in PERMIDES, learning how to connect digital enterprises with personalised medicine SMEs. From 2019 onward they stepped up as coordinator of DIGI-B-CUBE, a larger and more ambitious Innovation Action covering bioimaging, biosensing and biobanking. The trajectory shows a clear move from follower role in a narrow personalised-medicine theme to leadership role across a broader medical diagnostics value chain.

Moving deeper into the medical diagnostics value chain as a consortium leader, making them a useful partner for SMEs wanting a connector between bioimaging, biosensing and biobanking communities.

How they like to work

They shifted from partner to leader: joined PERMIDES as a participant in 2016, then coordinated the much larger DIGI-B-CUBE in 2019 with a 13-partner consortium across 7 countries. This progression — from learning the ropes to running a EUR 3.5M Innovation Action — signals an organization comfortable managing multi-country SME-focused innovation programs. Partners considering joining their projects can expect structured cluster-style coordination rather than pure research leadership.

Worked with 13 unique consortium partners across 7 countries through two H2020 projects. Based in Oslo with a European reach, consistent with their role as a cluster connecting Nordic health SMEs to EU-wide innovation networks.

What sets them apart

As a Norwegian cluster organization rather than a research lab or SME, Oslo Cancer Cluster brings community-building and matchmaking capabilities that pure research partners cannot. Their willingness to coordinate a EUR 3.5M multi-industry Innovation Action suggests operational maturity in handling EU funding and large consortia. For partners in diagnostics or digital health, they offer access to the Nordic health ecosystem and structured SME engagement, not bench-level R&D.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DIGI-B-CUBE
  Their coordinator project with EUR 3.57M budget, spanning three diagnostic industries (bioimaging, biosensing, biobanking) — unusually broad scope for a single Innovation Action.
• PERMIDES
  Early entry into EU digital-health innovation as a partner, focused on personalised medicine SMEs — a thematic precursor to their later DIGI-B-CUBE leadership.