Nordic Funding Index

A Nordic Women’s Health Funding Index would make Nordic women’s health innovation legible as a single share of Nordic capital, by reporting consistent definitions across the seven Nordic public funders: Vinnova, the Research Council of Norway, Business Finland, Innovation Fund Denmark, Rannís, Nordic Innovation, and NordForsk. Over time, the Index could be layered with equity reach, time to evidence, and quality of life instruments. Without baseline measurement, the Strategic Co-Investment Facility (I-M-1) cannot set verifiable trajectory targets, and Nordic women’s health investment cannot be reported to the EU as a coherent regional commitment.

The estimated Nordic baseline is approximately 5 to 7 per cent of total health innovation funding, triangulated from the global 6 per cent benchmark in the WEF Women’s Health Investment Outlook and individual Nordic funder disclosures. No Nordic public funder discloses this share publicly, and definitional alignment alone unlocks it. Building the Funding Index in 2026 and 2027 as the first shared KPI layer, then layering SROI (Social Return on Investment) and IRIS+ (the GIIN’s impact measurement system) aligned impact instruments in 2028 and 2029, would put the Nordics ahead of the WEF Index and Australia’s National Women’s Health Strategy monitoring framework on the substantive question: how much Nordic public capital goes to women’s health, and what it delivers. Nordic Innovation as convening lead, with the seven Nordic public funders, is positioned to commit to definitions and reporting in 2026.