Valley Voice: SINTEF Digital

– For Norway, the challenge will be to reach our climate goals and to keep up with the global digital race, says Morten Dalsmo Executive Vice President at SINTEF Digital.  

Valley Voice – a column where our cluster members are in focus. What are they doing right now? How are they contributing to the Energy Transition, and which challenges and opportunities lay ahead?

Morten Dalsmo, Executive Vice President of SINTEF

This week we had a talk with Morten Dalsmo, Executive Vice President of SINTEF Digital. Dalsmo is also part of Energy Valleys Advisory Board, and has almost 20 years of experience working in R&D, delivery and sales of advanced automation and IT solutions.  

1. What are you doing right now?

I am currently at my home office and have just finished my last Teams meeting of the day. As a leader there are often quite a lot of Teams meetings in a day, but it works well for me. Teams provides great flexibility and the possibility to do both internal and external meetings in an efficient way. The pandemic has definitely taught us something about the opportunities of digital meetings. When we are back to a normal situation, we will of course have physical meetings again, but at the same time I think we will, in a much greater sense meet digitally when appropriate.  

2. How is SINTEF contributing to the Energy Transition?

SINTEFs vision is “Technology for a better society” and our business is driven by the UNs Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, it is absolutely central to us in contributing to the energy transition. We have extensive research activity within offshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture- and storage, solar power and batteries.  

For instance, within offshore wind, SINTEF leads the Research Centre “North Wind” in collaboration with research partners NTNU, NGI, NINA and UiO. In addition to the research partners, over 40 Norwegian industry partners are part of the Centre. “North Wind” will contribute with profitable Norwegian export within offshore wind, new green jobs and wind power that respects both the nature and humans. At the same time, we are still in oil & gas in order to contribute to a sustainable development of the industry.  

3. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in the future?

The biggest challenges in the future are managing the transition towards a low emission society and tackle big international crisis, like the pandemic for instance. For Norway, the challenge will be to reach our climate goals and to keep up with the global digital race. This will require a significant green and digital transition of Norwegian industry and public sector. It means that Norwegian companies need to develop green and digital leadership within their respective markets.  

However, the green and digital transformation also offer major opportunities. A lot of Norwegian companies have great prerequisites to take the lead in the transition and thus, take leading global market positions. We are already witnessing this within sectors where we traditionally had a strong position, but also within emerging industries such as offshore wind. 

4. What is the best about being a member of Energy Valley?

The best thing about being a member of Energy Valley is the great network and events. It provides great opportunities to exchange experiences and collaboration across the member companies. 

5. Is there any book that have inspired the way you lead?

A book that recently inspired me was “Competing in the Age of AI: Atrategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World“, published by Harvard Business Review. The book clearly states the importance of how leaders of both digital and traditional businesses acknowledge the opportunities and challenges of the Digital Transition.  

6. Which Energy Valley member do you pass the baton to?

I pass the baton on to John Markus Lervik, Co-Founder & CEO of Cognite. 

Thank you, Morten!