The Drammen based company HTS has a market stretching from the deepest subsea to the outer space.
When the Subsea Valley has entered an agreement of cooperation with the Aerospace Valley, it is common ground for HTS managing director Nina Cecilie Solberg.
Running the subsea-to-space company with 110 employees, founded by her father in 1982 and co-owned by her three sisters, Solberg welcomes the Subsea to Space initiative.
– We need more skilled workers, she says, pointing at an animation on the screen at the conference stand on the Subsea Valley Conference. – This is the way skilled mechanical employees work today.
HTS deliver high-precision products to customers, form simple components to complex solutions, for use in space as well as in the deep seas.
Preben Strøm, Subsea Valley CEO, says the Cluster has a strong believe in collaboration across industries. One can be surprised of the similarities between the Space and Subsea industries.
Companies from the Aerospace Valley Cluster in France participates at the Subsea Valley Conference.
– Oil & gas benefit from aerospace, and the subsea industry with all its prospects are very helpful to our space industry in France, said Ambassador of France in Norway, Jean-Mark Rives.
The Subsea to Space initiative aiming to foster more innovation and entrepreneurship.
The big players are eager to search for new innovators. Eva Kristensen, managing director, GE Oil & Gas Nordic, in her keynote speech urged innovators to come forward with new ideas.
– We want more entrepreneurs who startup companies that we can buy, Kristensen said. For GE Oil & Gas the subsea sector is the fastest growing part of the company. And the global giant is an innovation universe, investing USD 5,4 billions in R&D, employing more than 37 000 in R&D and 2 600 scientists on the payroll.
Kristensen pointed at three trends in the Norwegian part of GE Oil & Gas: Local business driven by closeness to local customers and niche strengths, subsea is a global business driving global business models and thirdly: Innovation is a key driver.
Frank M Salzgeber, Head of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office at European Space Agency (ESA), reports that there is a startup and innovation wave building up in Europe at the moment. This in sharp contrast to the situation 10 years ago, when starting up a new business was equal to being unemployed.
– Today, the social risk of making a startup is zero, said Salzgeber – pointing at his slides from space:
– The exploration of the space remains one of the most stimulating and exciting areas of scientific research.
Note: Oslo Business Memo is editorial partner at Subsea ValleyConference 2014.