Oslo Science City’s neighborhood meeting on inclusion and social sustainability brought together the sports movement, business community, the City of Oslo, the University of Oslo, and property owners in the area to discuss new ideas and solutions.
Sports, education, and working life are key arenas for fostering a more inclusive and socially sustainable society. However, there's significant potential to enhance inclusion efforts by developing even closer collaboration among these different spheres.
To build such enhanced collaboration, Oslo Science City invited participants to a neighborhood meeting at Ullevaal Stadium at the end of August, focusing on inclusion and social sustainability. More than forty leaders and engaged employees attended to listen, discuss, and network. They represented the sports movement, business community, the City of Oslo, and the University of Oslo, in addition to key property owners and developers in the area.
"When building Norway's first innovation district in Oslo Science City, it's crucial for us that this becomes a vibrant and inclusive area for everyone in Oslo. This area houses both research and practical experience in inclusion work, together constituting an incredible knowledge resource. Now, we aim to connect the different actors to find ideas and solutions that can strengthen inclusion work, both locally here and throughout Norway," says Christine Wergeland Sørbye, CEO of Oslo Science City, who led the meeting.
Inclusion Happens Where People Meet
Karl-Petter Løken, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Football Federation, highlighted in his speech that football is not only vital for inclusion but also one of Norway's largest public health initiatives. To ensure even broader inclusion in sports, it's important to adapt sports facilities so everyone has the opportunity to participate, elaborated the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Sports Confederation, Nils Einar Aas.
"However, the most important inclusion work occurs in and between buildings and facilities, where people meet and interact," said Aas.
Idar Kreutzer from the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) emphasized that the business community is a major resource for inclusion. He pointed out that more than 600,000 people are outside the labor force and education in Norway, and that the foundation for inclusion is laid early, through education, sports, and leisure activities.
"Here, all actors must connect more closely with each other to consider the entire chain that can prevent exclusion," said Kreutzer.
Research and Education Offer Opportunities
Vice-Rector Bjørn Stensaker from the University of Oslo spoke about the university's wide-ranging research on exclusion, providing the means to explore exclusion as a broad and complex phenomenon. He also discussed social innovation as a focus area at the university. These are innovations that primarily aim to address societal challenges, such as improving public services, rather than having a commercial potential.
The City of Oslo’s acting Director of Business Development, Øyvind Såtvedt, emphasized the critical role of education in preventing radicalization in addition to exclusion. He highlighted Ullern Upper Secondary School as a model in the effort to forge closer links between schooling and higher education. The school is co-located with Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC), and students on the research program are assigned individual mentors from the OCC environment.
Inclusive Development Projects
The importance of creating welcoming and inclusive meeting places was a key theme among the developers presenting four ongoing and planned development projects in the area. Two of the planned projects are neighbors: one is the development of Sognsveien 80-90, owned by the City of Oslo and currently housing, among other things, Blindern Upper Secondary School. The other is Sogn Arena, owned by Bertel O. Steen Eiendom.
Anders Fremming Andersen from the Education Agency and Øivind Solbakken from Bertel O. Steen Eiendom emphasized the importance of holistic thinking in development work and creating vibrant urban areas where different population groups can meet.
The desire to foster interaction and urban life was also central to the other two development projects presented. The Campus Ullevål project, a collaboration between NGI and Aspelin Ramm, aims to become a hub for research and innovation in climate, energy, and the environment. The companies' leaders, Lars Andresen and Ida Aall Gram, talked about creating an open ground floor in the building, featuring catering services, event spaces, and a science center.
Plans for the development of Ullevaal Stadium and its adjacent buildings were presented by Erik Forgaard from AS Ullevaal Stadion and Richard Groven from Oslo Pensjonsforsikring. They highlighted the goal of bringing people together and creating vibrant spaces as a guiding principle for the project – in meeting rooms, on the football field, and in commercial areas.
Comprehensive Collaboration on Inclusion
In the subsequent panel discussion, ideas and perspectives were shared by sports president Zaineb Al-Samarai, president of the Norwegian Sports Confederation, Director Trond Lien from Osloskolen, and Director Tore Rem from the interdisciplinary research initiative UiO:Democracy.
Al-Samarai emphasized the need for such comprehensive collaboration on inclusion throughout Oslo, especially in the eastern parts of the city. Lien and Rem pointed out that both schools and the university stand to gain from opening up even more to the surrounding society to enhance relevance and inclusion in education and research.
Oslo Science City has already been working with Blindern Upper Secondary School and the University of Oslo on sustainability projects for several years, where students gain valuable knowledge through structured engagement with the business community. There is significant potential for expanding this successful collaboration to more subjects and broader parts of the Oslo school system.
"We look forward to collaborating more with actors from research, education, sports, and business to further develop Oslo Science City as a platform for inclusion and sustainability," says Christine Wergeland Sørbye.