Monthly Archives: March 2014

The Lab Animal Facility

Per BakkeThe Lab Animal Facility is a core facility at MOF, where K1 has operational responsibility and Aurora Brønstad is the director. At K2 there are several users of both large and small animal models. The activities of the Lab Animal Facility have changed over time. Several activities have expanded to a considerable degree, such as the use of transgene mouse models, whereas other activities such as testing with large animals have been reduced.

There is an increased need for prioritization of the facility’s tasks and two-way information between the facility and the users regarding what assistance the researchers may expect and what demands the researchers must adhere to. Research projects wishing to use the facility must contact Aurora as early as possible in order to ease the facility’s planning. All applications will be subjecte to prioritization. One cannot take for granted that access will be given as soon as the need arises. As is the case with other core facilities, the costs of the services given, must also be considered.

There has recently been a useful meeting between representatives from the Lab Animal Facility, K1, K2, IBM and the faculty based on an initiative from K1 where these issues were discussed. One course of action implemented subsequent to the meeting is that the academic advisory group at the Lab Animal Facility will be more active and advise on guidelines for prioritization of projects.

It is important that all users contribute constructively in the debate regarding the facility.

Per

Heat and hot water will be shut down April 4

Advarsel skiltDue to repairs, heat and hot water will disappear Friday April 4 starting about 17:00. The work will continue through the evening and night before April 5, until the repairs are done. The heat will fall towards the evening and the end of work hours for most people.

How fast the heat will fall is dependent on the temperature outside, but will for most take a few hours before it is noticed.

In Barneklinikken extra measures will be taken to reduce the risk of cooling.

Correct address in publications

Advarsel skiltAfter having reviewed the publications for 2013, the administration has noticed that not everyone has used the correct address in their publications.  Thus we want to point out that it is very important that this is done in a correct manner.  The correct address which is to be used is Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen.

2014 Spring Exploratory pre-seed grants

NOVOThe exploratory pre-seed program is a stimulus fund established to accelerate commercialization of biomedical research findings and development of novel technologies within the life sciences. The goal of an exploratory pre-seed grant is to stimulate entrepreneurship and to explore the potential of research findings at a very early stage (pre-seed), and to prepare the project for a full pre-seed grant at a later stage. Application deadline is April 23. For more information.

 

Seminar “Intravascular imaging – finding and crushing the clot”

Next week there will be a new seminar in the seminar line “Perspectives in Translational Medicine”. Time and place: Wednesday April 2 at 14:15-15:00, Stort auditorium, Sentralblokken. Presentations will be held by Professor Lars Thomassen (Dep. of Neurology/UoB K1) and PhD-candidate Erlend Eriksen (Intervention cardiologist at the Heart dep.).

Seminars about July 22nd

logoConference: The memorabilia of July 22nd
Time: April 2, 9:00-16:00
Place: Riksarkivet, Oslo
Several thousand children and adults gave one last salute to those who lost their lives on July 22nd 2011. What can these salutes tell us? The national research ethics comittees, Hedmark University College and the National Archives (Riksarkivet) invites you to a conference about the memorabilia. Read more and register here (in Norwegian).

logo_forskningsetikkBreakfast seminar: Research on right extremism after July 22nd.
Time:
April 25, 8:00-10:00
Place: Litteraturhuset, Oslo
The biggest terror attack in Norwegian history was an attack from the extreme right. What knowledge do we have about the right extremist and racist circles in Norway and internationally, and what threat they pose. Read more and register here (in Norwegian).

This Week`s Editorial

Eystein Husebye

New positions at K2

Despite the tight financial situation at the institute, we must steadily work with future recruitment of staff.  Good recruitment is extremely important for the long-term development of the institute.  This spring, K2 will start working on the framework for future recruitment.

It will be important to single out and weigh the criteria to be used in the recruitment process. Key words are teaching needs and skills, research, cooperation abilities, and leadership.

Unanswered questions are whether or not new positions should be allocated the academic sections or if we should follow the model: “We don’t care what you do as long as you are a leader in your field”.  What weight should the university clinics’ wish for specialized skills be given?  Likewise, we must discuss what positions are most suitable given the tasks we have – should we aim for more 50 and 100 % positions at the expense of 20 % positions?  Should the division of principal positions into multiple 20% positions as has been the case in recent years be reversed? Should we now hire more people to technical positions at the expense of scientific personnel?

We will begin by collecting background information about the present employment situation, expected budget resources for new positions, teaching needs (undervisningsregnskap) and scientific production (Cristin). Next we will ask for input from you regarding the principles for prioritization, as well as well-founded requests for new positions.  I hope many of you will engage actively in this.

Welcome to an important and a most certainly, demanding process. A detailed plan for the recruitment process will be published in K2’s weekly newsletter during April.

Eystein Husebye

Did you know that…

…K2nytt has comment fields?

If you have opinions, suggestions or questions, just write them in the comment field.

At the bottom right of each article you will find the link “Leave a reply”, which leads you directly to the comment field. Number of comments is noted in the top right inside a small speech bubble. The bubble is a link that also leads you to the comment field.

All comments will be moderated by the K2nytt editorial staff. That means that we keep out spam and troll comments. We will not remove comments based on the opinion expressed.

MedIm – Norwegian Research School in Medical Imaging

NTNU_logo

Medlm is a nationwide multidisciplinary network promoting high quality research training. The research school’s multidisciplinary approach is illustrated by the range of relevant fields: ultrasound, MRI, PET, CT, image guided surgery, biomedical optics and bionanotechnology. The research school offers grants to PhD candidates, and various forms of support to course teachers and supervisors. For more
information.

Prizes of the year at MOF

Per BakkeThis year, as in previous years, the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has announced prizes for the publication of the year, the research group of the year, the PhD-work of the year, as well as a prize for outstanding research dissemination.  Each institute may suggest up to two candidates within each category.

So far one suggestion for the publication of the year has been submitted.  Thus there is plenty of room for more suggestions and there is definitely not a lack of strong candidates at K2.  For each suggestion a brief justification report should be attached.  More information about the criteria for each prize category can be found here (in Norwegian only).

There you will also find an overview of previous winners.This is a great opportunity also for younger colleagues to make a mark; in addition there is a cash award.  I encourage all research groups to consider if they have candidates relevant for the various prizes.  Suggestions should be sent to Irene by March 24

Per

Maintenance of UiB net area

Friday 14/3 the IT staff must perform necessary maintenance on the storage solution that contains the public areas of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. This includes the P: in Windows, and you may also have different project areas covered by this connected to other letters.

Between 19:00 and 22:00 Friday 14/3 there will be a break of up to an hour while we perform necessary maintenance. It is therefore recommended to log out before going home and not work during this time. If these areas do not work after 22:00 14/3 it is recommended to do a reboot and it will work again.

This is an emergency that we need to get completed and we apologize strongly for disadvantages that entails!

In case of problems, contact Brita at 55584700 (during office hours) or register a case in problemdatabasen.

FRIPRO Mobility grant for young researchers

NFRThe Research Council of Norway is issuing a call for a new mobility
grant for young researchers. The grant scheme is open to applicants in all fields and disciplines. These 14 grants are jointly funded by the Research Council (60 %) and EU’s Marie Curie Actions (40 %), and are for 3 years, where 2 must be spent at an institution abroad and one at an institution in Norway. Application deadline May 21. For more information

Information meeting about EU funding for Health Research and Innovation

The Research Council of Norway in collaboration with Oslo Cancer Cluster invites to an information meeting about various EU funding for health research and innovation.
Venue: Møterom Abel, Norges Forskningsråd, Stensberggt 26, Oslo
Time: March 21st, 09:00-11:30
Registration deadline March 20th.
Registration can also be done by mail