Funding for clinical trials?

[Leif]

This gave me an idea on how to write in newspapers for more funding for research for regenerative medicine and future clinical trials here at home. A lot of writing to be done - “Go north, young man”.

'Oil Rush' forecast up north

It's being billed as an "Oil Rush" akin to the famous "Gold Rush" of 1849 in California. But instead of being advised to "Go west, young man," Norwegians are being told to "go north." A gas leak on the oil platform Snorre A caused problems for Statoil. Critics of oil exploration in the sensitive Arctic claim such accidents show the risk of a new Oil Rush up north.
PHOTO: STATOIL/SCANPIX
Development of the "Snow White" gas field already has been a major economic boost to the northern city of Hammerfest.
PHOTO: OLE MAGNUS RAPP


Economic analysts and Norway's biggest employers' organization unveiled their bullish outlook for the next 20 years on Monday, and the fortunes they see emerging are in northern Norway. The fortunes will be fuelled, they claim, by offshore oil and gas exploration and discoveries in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea and even in the controversial, scenic areas around the Lofoten archipelago.
"No one understood the impact of (North Sea oil field) Ekofisk in the 1970s," claimed Kjell Roland of economic analysis firm ECON. "We're on the brink of the same thing now."
Roland and ECON have just completed an analysis for employers' organization NHO, that forecasts growth possibilities in Northern Norway. According to ECON, the possibilities are huge.
So huge, they predict, that they may almost literally turn Norway upside down, with power and wealth starting to bubble up in the north instead of in the southern part of the country around Oslo.
Oil exploration activity and the expected discovery of new gas and oil fields, Roland said, will create new jobs and new affluence in Finnmark and Troms counties. Tourism will also continue to blossom, as will the fishing industry, ECON's analysts claim.
The findings were warmly welcomed by NHO and its president Erling Øverland, who's also a top executive at state oil company Statoil. He said oil drilling in Northern Norway must be made a priority.
The challenge, both Roland and Øverland admitted, is for the oil companies to gain political support and for the business, fishing and foreign relations ministries to move in the same direction. The fishing industry, for example, has been concerned about possible pollution from oil drilling activities, and may even find itself competing against the oil industry for workers.
Concern for the environment remains the biggest challenge for an Oil Rush. Environmental groups and many politicians remain seriously worried about the risk of accidents in the form of oil spills and leaks. Guro Hauge of environmental group Bellona maintains that recent accidents prove the oil companies "aren't ready for drilling in the north."
Roland of ECON concedes that "it's clear there's a risk with all oil activity that something can go wrong," but he claims new technology makes the risk of accidents "relatively small."