Monthly Archives: November 2014

Budget 2015

The University Director has just sent the budget allocation letter to MOFA. Unfortunately, it is rather depressive reading. Salary- and price compensation for UiB is set to 3%. However, as the money travels through the system to the institute, the compensation proposed to be cut to 1%.What the final figure will be will be decided in the December Faculty Board Meeting.

The size of the local salary pot was unusually big this year and K2 employees were allocated a large part of it, so much that our salary expenses will increase about 5% in total next year. This combined with a minimal number of retirements the next two years means that we will have to continue to reduce that base funding part of our budget. However, we will still try to shield the operating funds allocated PhD-students and Postdocs, but I cannot promise that we will be able to do so in 2015.

Another main issue for K2 in the budgeting process is how zero-overhead projects are to be handled. K2 is the institute with the highest number of such projects. The Faculty Board will in December also determine principles for how rent and administrative costs for such projects are to be paid. This may affect the financial situation at K2. There are signs that we will see a tightening in transferal in this area. Thus, we might very soon find ourselves in a situation where we will have to say no to certain forms of external funding.

Are there no positive cyphers you may ask? Well, there will be funds earmarked galenic pharmacy. In addition we will be have a larger budget for scientific equipment than in 2014. K2 will also be given a technical position for operating and administering the Unit for Healthy Volunteers which will launch in 2015.

Whether or not we will be able to strengthen the budget is also up to you as a K2-employee. At the top of my wish list is funding of some of our many EU- and NFR-applications. It is great to know that K2 is the UiB institute with the highest number of EU-applications this year; hopefully some will be translated into project funding. These are the projects that can strengthen the financial situation at K2. Let’s just hope our prayers are answered.

Wishing you all a balanced 2015

Eystein

Head of Department

Extended emergencey power test in the Laboratory Building

As part of the emergency power test on Wendesday December 3, 2013, Teknisk Avdeling will conduct an extended emergency power test in the Laboratory Building. The reason is the need for test running the aggregates.

The emergency power test will begin at 07.15 and end at 08.00.
For more information (in Norwegian)

Extended emergencey power test in the Laboratory Building

As part of the emergency power test on Wendesday December 3, 2013, Teknisk Avdeling will conduct an extended emergency power test in the Laboratory Building. The reason is the need for test running the aggregates.

The emergency power test will begin at 07.15 and end at 08.00. For more information (in Norwegian)

Continue reading →

Final posting dates for letters and packages – domestic Christmas 2014

Final posting dates for letters and packages – domestic Christmas

Midway evaluation week 49

Marie Karlsen

Thursday December 4, at 08:00-09:00

For more information

The midway evaluation will take place in the seminar room on the 7th floor of the Lab-building

NEW K1/K2 SEMINAR

We wish to invite you all to the next monthly K1/K2 Seminar Series!

Title: “B-cell depletion in chronic fatigue syndrome”

Held by Øystein Fluge, Senior Scientist, Department of Clinical Science

When: Wednesday, December 3rd, 14:15-15:00.

Where: Main Auditorium, 3rd floor, Sentralblokken.

Chair: Roland Jonsson

Abstract: Chief Physician and Senior Scientist Øystein Fluge, together with colleague Olav Mella, study the effects of the cancer medicine Rituximab on ME-patients, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This year they have initiated a double blind study in order to test Rituximab on patients. At this seminar Øystein Fluge will talk about his exciting work, about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the effects of Rituximab.

Announcement of scolarships from Pasteur Legatet 2014

On December 27, 2104, The Pasteur Foundation will award scholarships to Norwegian scientists who intend to study a topic related to infectious agents, chemistry or the fermentation industry. Allocation of funding is preferably awarded young, active and promising researchers, below the doctoral level.
For more information (In norwegian)

Deadline December 15th.

The Meltzer Research found Awards

The Meltzer Research Fund annually distributes awards for young reasearchers and for excellence in the dissemination of research. All professors and heads of department at the University of Bergen are eligible to nominate candidates to the Fund’s awards.

Deadline for sending in suggestions for nominations is December 1, 2014.
More information

Outstanding award to PhD-Candidate at K2

As part of the annual meeting of American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in Boston, USA, PhD-Candidate/LIS-doctor Maria Boge Lauvsnes was awarded the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation’s Outstanding Abstract Award. Through her work – Hippocampal Atrophy Is Associated with Anti-NR2 Antibodies in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome – she has shown that a type of anti-NMDA receptor antibodies (anti-NR2 antibodies) cause atrophy of the brain structure hippocampus in humans with the immunological diseases SLE and primary Sjögren’s syndrome. This has been confirmed in animal models, which have revealed that anti-NR2 antibodies cause neuronal death of hippocampus in mice.

Such antibodies are associated with cognitive failure in both SLE and primary Sjögren’s syndrome, and they may constitute a general mechanism for cerebral affection with immunopathies.

Maria Boge Lauvsnes works for the Clinical Immunological Research Group at Stavanger University Hospital

Courses/workshops

Uni Research Rokkansenteret; STATA-course
December 11th-12th, U-phil, University of Bergen

New Publications

Week 48/2014.

Continue reading →

Applications for external funding in 2014

The research activity for 2014 at K2 is strongly characterized by a large volume and enthusiasm for external funding. As the year is almost at an end, it could be wise to summarize the status for application writing done to obtain funding for research. There is no doubt that application activity at K2 has been very high, something which deserves lots of praise. A lot of focus has been aimed at Horizon2020, and now that many of the announcements have closed, you might think that people have become a bit tired of the process. Of course many might wait for answers/results before they decide whether or not the effort has been worth it.

The impression is that those who apply the most, within all fields, are also those applying for the most competitive announcements such as FRIPRO and H2020 – so this does not indicate application tiredness. However, these are always the most active applicants. The question becomes how many new applicants there are at K2 – how many actually dare, and bother to, participate?

Regarding application status – 17 applications have been sent from K2 to NFR/FRIPRO. Six of these have also applied H2020. In total, 16 stage-2 applications have been sent to H2020. Among these are 5 applications for coordinator status (7 have been sent in total from MOF) and this is statistically very good.

In addition, this is just a part of our application activity, and does not include all the applications to The Norwegian Cancer Society, BMF/BMFS, Health and Rehabilitation, Helse Vest, etc. But in principle, only EU and NFR include contribution margin (overheads).

Further, how and when should one initiate, for instance, an EU application? A good time to start would be during a postdoc-period. Young people, in an early stage of their career, are most in need of obtaining skills in writing applications, and these people should be included in any large-scale application writing.

So now we eagerly await feedback in the upcoming weeks …..

Roland

Midway evaluations week 48

Calum Leitch

Friday November 28, at 11:00-12:00

For more information

Marianne Astor

Friday November 28, at 13:45-14:45

For more infomation

Both evaluations will take place in the seminar room on the 7th floor of the Lab-building.

Academic meeting on breast cancer with Fabricie André

The meeting will take place on Thursday November 27, 2 pm at the Department of Oncology, HUS. Fabricie André is one of the world’s leading researchers on treatment of breast cancer. Click here for more information

Cecilie Svanes awarded COPD Prize from LHL

Yesterday, Professor Cecilie Svanes (Centre for International Health at Department of Global Health and Primary Care) received the COPD Prize from The National Organization for Heart- and Lung Disease (LHL). Svanes is, among other things, currently researching how the living conditions of grandparents and parents may influence the development of asthma and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in children. Read more here: (in Norwegian)

SEMINAR: Reducing useless health research in Norway

On December 3 Centre for Knowledge-based Practice, Bergen University College, together with The Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Serviceswill focus on “knowledge-based research”. For more information, and instructions on how to sign up (in Norwegian)

Announcment of funds available for research on new methods for teaching and learning at UiB

Funds are available for research on new methods for teaching and learning at the University of Bergen (Shipowner Jacob R. Olsen and wife Johanne Georgine Olsen’s foundation).

All PhD-Candidates and students may apply. More information is available
here (in Norwegian).

Application deadline is December 1. Application database

Credit for teaching at Bergen Summer Research School

Rector’s Office wishes for scientific employees teaching at Bergen Summer Research School to receive credit for this in the teaching records just as with any other teaching. Click here to read the letter from Rector’s Office (in Norwegian). The Faculty wishes for the institutes to provide input on this matter If you have any input please e-mail to
Synnøve Myhre

Academic-Pedagogical Day at UiB

On Friday February 6, 2015, the annual Academic-Pedagogical Day for lecturers will be arranged. Here the latest in research from UiB will be presented, and this is a great arena to promote the work we do here at K2! The contributions could be ordinary lecturers of one to two hours duration, but you may also choose to put together a series of lectures or a mini seminar within an academic field or topic. Contributions should be registered via this link or to fp-dag@adm.uib.no Think widely and creatively; (almost) everything is allowed!

App-version of «National user manual in medical biochemistry»

“National user manual in medical biochemistry” is an academic resource on laboratory samples which is now available as a free App. This app could be very useful for both students and employees. Click here for more information (in Norwegian)

Emergencies at K2

If life, health and/or safety is at risk, conact:

Fire department 110
Police 112
Ambulance 113

UiB’s 24 hours security: 55 58 80 81

Head of Department:

Eystein S. Husebye, phone: 94 38 03 47
e-mail: eystein.husebye@k2.uib.no

Synnøve Myhre, phone: 93 48 46 14
e-mail: synnove.myhre@k2.uib.no

Hospital:

Hospital security: 559 72222
Fire at the hospital area: 559 72004
Accident/Acute illness: 559 73333

Other:

Poison centre: 22 59 13 00

Link til UiB’s emergency plan:

http://regler.app.uib.no/regler/Del-1-Overordnede-rammer/1.6-Beredskapsplan-ved-UiB/Beredskapsplan-for-Universitetet-i-Bergen(in Norwegian)

HSE-seminar with buoyancy

Many agree that this year’s HSE-seminar was «the best HSE-seminar ever». We enjoyed a diverse programme consisting of group sessions with problem solving, a “feel good” seminar with Marco Elsafadi, and a panel debate on the issue – how can K2 become a better place to work?
The HSE-seminar is somewhat similar to Christmas services, it is nice and pleasant to hear about baby Jesus in the crib and sing Christmas carols, but then we forget about it until next Christmas. This time I want at least some of the lessons and ideas to be remembered and implemented.

Marco Elsafadi talked about his experiences as an athlete and as head of a company, focusing on politeness and generosity. He talked about Daniel who always greeted others by name, made coffee, and created a pleasant working environment around himself; about laughter and generosity. It might sound like fluff for “hard core scientists”, but it is actually important that people are happy – the joy of work will increase, and productivity and creativity will rise. You are all encouraged to greet everyone you meet at K2, and also to learn the name of someone you do not know.

The panel debate was constructive and engaging. An issue raised by several contributors was common meeting areas. The K1/K2 seminars and K2-news are both examples of meeting areas which I believe functions well. Helge Ræder suggested a discussion forum such as Harvard catalyst. As we do not have the possibility to create our own intranet at K2, we have this week launched the group “K2 katalysator” on Facebook as our “intranet”. The idea is that the Facebook forum can work as a “water hole” where K2 people can discuss/ask about collaborations, advice when the PCR-reaction do not work, or put in a request for equipment or chemical badly needed. Further, the page may be used to announce academic and social activities as well as to discuss other scientific or social issues related to K2. You are all hereby invited to participate!

We will also present the summaries of the various group sessions at the HMS-seminar in upcoming issues of K2-news so that this work will not be forgotten either. Thus, HSE is on the agenda throughout the entire year.

I wish you all a productive weekend and week.

Eystein Husebye

Acting Head of Department

Obituary Aksel Harald Schreiner

This text is in norwegian only.

Vår kjære kollega og venn professor emeritus og overlege Aksel Harald Schreiner døde 6. november 2014 81 år gammel.

Han bisettes i Møllendal Store Kapell tirsdag 18. november kl 13. Alle som ønsker å delta er velkommen til bisettelsen og etterfølgende minnestund i Legenes hus. Les minneord her.

Research presentations from 2014

Researchers and PhD-candidates from K1 and K2, as well as from Helse Bergen, are invited to present their work to fellow researchers and the general audience through poster presentation. The event is organized by the Bergen Postgraduate School of Clinical Medical research, and the poster exhibition will take place on January 26-30, 2015. Prizes will be awarded the best posters. Deadline for signing up is December 1, 2014. Click here for more information.

Equality conference at UiB

The University of Bergen is inviting anyone interested to the annual one-day conference on equality on December 5. At this year’s conference you will meet researchers, activists and practitioners who, from their different viewpoints, will contribute with illuminating the topic of sexual orientation in regards to discrimination at the work place. Kim Friele and Norman Anderssen are among the exciting speakers invited. The conference will be opened by Rector Dag Rune Olsen and will finish with a panel debate hosted by Linda Eide.

Read more here (in Norwegian)

Sign up here (in Norwegian). Deadline for signing up is November 30.

World Diabetes Day November 14

The World Diabetes Day is approved and recognized by UN as an international day for highlighting diabetes. Through World Diabetes Day, diabetes will receive the attention it deserves as one of our time’s largest epidemics. Read more here (in Norwegian).

The World Diabetes Day logo.

Revised equipment list for the Budget process 2015

The Research Council at K2 has discussed the budgeting of equipment for 2015. The Research Council reviewed all suggestions regarding what equipment benefits the institute the greatest, as well as what equipment already exists today at K2 and in the Laboratory building. Cilck here for a summary of the meeting (in Norwegian). Click here for detailed budget (in Norwegian).

Master projects in pharmacy 2015/2016

Centre for Pharmacy encourage scientists to offer master projects in Pharmacy for the year 2015/2016. For more information click here. Deadline to submit projects is 17th December 2014.