Why industry experts and startups meet in the OASIS Pressure Cooker.
24. mars 2026
High intensity days, steep learning curves, and constructive feedback between early-stage companies and established industry.
During the OASIS Pressure Cooker, early-stage companies and experienced industry players came together to accelerate solutions for offshore renewable energy – and to gain insight, learn from each other, and gain clearer direction for commercializing on their solutions.
A shared arena for acceleration
The OASIS Pressure Cooker is part of the EU-funded OASIS project (Offshore Accelerator for System Integration and Storage), where ÅKP is one of eight partners connected in the North Sea region. The project supports early-stage companies accelerating solutions related to system integration and energy storage for offshore renewable energy, with the goal of reducing time to market.
During the Pressure Cooker week in Ålesund, ÅKP hosted 16 international industry experts and investors. The program included training, pitching, mentoring, and site visits. Participants met industry representatives, investors, and technology experts from Norway and other countries.
Why industry experts choose to engage
For established industry players, participation in OASIS is a way to stay close to new ideas and technologies at an early stage, with the potential to innovate future offshore value chains.
“This experience has been very rewarding for me, both from a professional perspective and a personal perspective, seeing what the SMEs are working on, what kind of challenges they face, and how we can help them – and how they can help us.”
“It’s the face-to-face meetings with the SMEs that I particularly appreciate.”
Rasmus Juhlin from Subsea7 - advisory board member.
Through the sessions, mentors gained insight into a wide range of solutions, from connectors and charging of offshore vessels to improving how energy systems work. For the industry, this early contact makes it easier to spot potential future partners, suppliers or customers.
Learning under pressure
For the participating companies, the Pressure Cooker lived up to its name.
“Very high pressure. We've been learning a lot, absorbing everything in.”
The program required strong focus and quick decisions, but many participants found the experience highly valuable.
“I’m really enjoying the commercialization side of things. We’ll liaise with our coach moving forward and use the skills we’ve learned to plan what we’ll be doing over the next one or two years.”
Grace Power & Timothy Hawkey from Energybank - Participants
The compact format made it possible to learn a lot in a short amount of time.
Challenging ideas and sharpening the pitch
Pitching and receiving direct feedback from experienced industry representatives and investors was a central part of the program. For many of the participants, this helped challenge and improve how they express their value proposition.
“It has been a lot of fun, especially some of the pitch sessions. I get a lot of useful questions that I can take with me.”
The international setting also added value.
“When we get people from other countries in Europe, it gives more depth in the conversations and also in the presentations.”
Presenting in English was part of the challenge.
“Pitching in a different language than your mother tongue is very useful, because it gives you more sharpness.”
Lars Brekke from NOSTEC - Participant
New contacts and real-world insight.
Meeting people from other companies and industries was an important part of the week.
“It provides coaching and dialogue with other adjacent industries and actors. And together I believe this will give us a lift,” says Dag Nikolai Ryste (Glocal Green)
Kristian E. Vik highlights the value of seeing industrial infrastructure and operations first-hand.
“We travelled to Vigra, Voldsfjorden, and Langevåg and had site visits with Subsea7, Alotta, and Hexagon, among others.”
The participants visited Subsea 7, ODE’s cod farming, Hexagon Purus Maritime, and Norwegian Hydrogen, gaining insight into production facilities and solutions relevant for offshore system integration and energy storage.
Clearer direction going forward
After the week, many of the participants felt they had a clearer picture of what to focus on next. This included:
How to adjust and improve their idea and pitch
Which markets to prioritize
Which partners and contacts to follow up with
“I think the facilitation from ÅKP has been very good. It has always been like that,” says Lars Brekke (NOSTEC).
Part of a larger offshore transition
OASIS and the Pressure Cooker are part of a bigger change in offshore energy. As offshore energy becomes more renewable, new solutions are needed to store energy, connect systems, and make everything work together.
EU-funded projects like OASIS bring companies and experts from different countries together and give early-stage companies a chance to test their ideas in a real industry setting. Through OASIS, ÅKP helps connect startups with industry and international partners, making it easier to turn ideas into solutions for the offshore energy sector.
