Innovation Center Iceland

General description:The Innovation Center Iceland is a leading R&D and business support institute in Iceland. Acting in close cooperation with the industry, academia and national and international research institutes, the Innovation Center focuses on R&D, technology transfer, education, support for entrepreneurs and SMEs and consulting in order to increase innovation, productivity and competitiveness.

Innovation Center Iceland was established August 1, 2007 with the merger of the Technical Institute of Iceland (IceTec) and the Icelandic Building Research Institute (IBRI). IceTec operated for 29 years and IBRI for 42 years. The expertise gained after decades of working with SMEs, businesses, research institutions and academia, as well as extensive experience in managing and cooperating domestic and European R&D projects, makes Innovation Center Iceland the partner of choice for a variety of projects.

Incentive and contribution to the cluster: ICI will be active in supporting innovative SMEs to take part in the cluster in direct cooperation with the main actors of the Cluster and in a later phase directly as active players in the Cluster. This will be done in close cooperation with IMPRA, a part of ICI, (impra.is) and with the Federation of Icelandic Industries which is a member of the associative board of the cluster. The newly formed Project Office of ICI will assist SMEs in preparing international R&D projects through the EUREKA and Eurostars network.

Key personnel:

Prof. Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon, Ph.D. physics (e‑mail: this@simnet.is).
Presently Director General of the ICI, with 25 years of experience from combining academia and industry through spin-off company formation. International recognition and laureate of international prizes. Has been characterised in a recent EU analysis of the Icelandic innovation system as the main swithcher between academia and industry in Iceland.

Sigríður Ingvarsdóttir, MBA (e-mail: si@nmi.is)

Presently Chief Operating Officer at the Innovation Center Iceland and Operational Manager of the Incubator Center of the ICI, with 6 years of experience from working with entrepreneurs and medium and small-sized companies. A former member of the Icelandic Parliament and therefore with good knowledge of Icelandic legislations and laws.