Research project on radical task sharing receives NOK 21.5 million from the Research Council of Norway

OsloMet has been awarded NOK 21.5 million from the Research Council of Norway to research sustainable, radical task sharing in the health and care sector. The project builds on the work of the municipal alliance Morgendagens velferdssamfunn (Tomorrow's Welfare Society), where Nyby has been a central innovation partner since the very beginning.

Published 18.12.2025

Photo: Sonja Balci/OsloMet

The research project has been named BRO (Bærekraftig Radikal Oppgavedeling, Sustainable Radical Task Sharing) and is led by OsloMet, which has brought together several strong research communities from the University of South-Eastern Norway, Roskilde University in Denmark and Örebro University in Sweden.

The research team will now work in close collaboration with the St. Hanshaugen district in Oslo, Nordre Follo municipality, Lillestrøm municipality and Nyby to verify and build on the work already done to develop a task-based welfare model, one that strengthens capacity in the health and care services while creating new career paths for people who are currently outside the workforce.

"The welfare state must be organised in new ways"

Professor Marit Haldar at OsloMet, who is responsible for the project, emphasises that they are now taking on one of the greatest challenges facing the welfare state.

"We know that the needs in the health and care services will grow sharply in the years ahead, while the supply of qualified personnel will not. We cannot simply do more of the same. We must organise welfare, and the workforce, in new ways: smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive," says Haldar.

She points out that the BRO project is about drawing a clearer line between tasks that must be performed by healthcare professionals and tasks that can be handled by others, provided they are given the right training, support and structures.

"Radical task sharing does not mean lower quality. On the contrary, it is about ensuring that the right competence is used for the right task, so that professionals get more time for the work that truly requires their expertise, and so that more people can contribute to the welfare society," she says.

To be tested in full-scale operations, not as a pilot

A key ambition is to move away from small, temporary pilots and truly test the model in full-scale operations in the municipalities.

"What makes this project special is that we will not just be studying ideas, but actually following the implementation in practice over time. The funding from the Research Council makes it possible to combine innovation with research that follows the work as it happens, so that we can measure effects, manage risk and develop knowledge that other municipalities can put to use," says Haldar.

The funding will be used for, among other things:

Follow-up research and evaluation of effects
Development of new models for task sharing and service management
Competence and training programmes for new roles
Development of a roadmap for national scaling of the task-based welfare model

Photo: Fredrik Gulowsen, founder and CEO of Nyby

"An important recognition of the model we have built over time"

For Nyby, which has been one of the driving forces in the municipal alliance Morgendagens velferdssamfunn, the grant from the Research Council marks an important breakthrough.

"We are incredibly pleased that OsloMet is now getting the resources they need to validate and further develop the task-based welfare model that has been built over many years in collaboration with municipalities, research communities and Nyby," says Fredrik Gulowsen, founder and CEO of Nyby.

He believes the research project gives necessary weight to work that has already demonstrated great potential in practice.

"This is not about technology alone, but about an entirely new way of thinking about welfare. Nyby has contributed the infrastructure for task sharing, but the most important thing has been to show that it really is possible to organise work around tasks rather than job titles, and at the same time create better services and new opportunities for people who are outside the workforce."

"It can change how we build welfare going forward"

According to Gulowsen, the research is crucial if the model is to be scaled and adopted nationally.

"If we are to meet the staffing crisis in welfare without losing quality and trust, the solutions must be knowledge-based, verifiable and safe. The fact that the Research Council is now investing in this work, together with OsloMet and the municipalities, is a strong signal that task sharing is an important part of the welfare solutions of the future."

The project starts in 2026 and will run until 2029. The ambition is that the results will benefit not only the three municipalities, but also contribute to a national roadmap for how the welfare society can be organised in a more sustainable and inclusive way in the years to come.