Monthly Archives: February 2015

Report from the Strategy Seminar

Eystein 2The Strategy Seminar last week was informative and useful. Vice Dean for Research at Karolinska Institutet (KI) Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren gave an engaging talk about KI’s research strategy. Their starting point was to acknowledge that KI did not excel in medical research to the degree that KI thought themselves. Systematic bibliographic analyses of publication activity revealed that they had a strong position in Europe, but several universities with which they liked to be compared to, did better. KI defined as its goal to become as good as University of Oxford with regards to “impact” of publications. To reach this goal they decided to publish fewer, but better articles – in other words, more articles that bring significant new knowledge to the field and therefore reach the most prestigious journals. KI viewed their PhD-programs’ demand for 3-4 articles as an obstacle – “it is better to publish one high-impact article than 3-4 articles of lesser importance”. KI has now removed the demand for a minimum number of articles in PhD-theses. Furthermore, KI wishes to recruit active research leaders and now work very actively with recruitment of such persons. A “starting package” often is in the order of 10 million per year for 3-5 years. Such a package is often composed of both university- and external funding, but it should be noted that KI is in charge of the strategy and the evaluation of candidates. At the same time KI has a keen eye also on the groups who perform badly, and take action. Sometimes such groups merged with stronger groups, other times they are dismantled.

 ViceRector Anne Lise Fimreite talked about UiB’s strategy process. UiB aims to build up strong research clusters. One of these is called Health, and will focus on research related to health services (Samhandlingsreformen). The strategy document will soon be out on hearing, which gives you a chance to submit your views.

 Finally the Pharmaceutical Industry informed of their interest in increased interaction with academic institutions; they wish to establish a pilot center for such collaboration in Bergen. It will be exciting to learn more about this in the near future.

 Finally there was a workshop and discussion on the department’s organization. I expected both criticism and creative suggestions for changes, but it appeared that most people were satisfied with today’s organization. The discussion was rather tame, but one conclusion emerged – if K2 is to improve we have to collaborate better; everyone must contribute to do the work.

 Eystein Husebye

 Head of Department

NEW K1/K2 SEMINAR 2015

We wish to invite everyone to the K1/K2 seminar series!

 Next seminar:
Title: “Genetic alterations causing resistance to chemotherapy in breast
cancer”
 Held by Stian Knappskog.
Section of Oncology, K2, UiB / Mohn Kreftforskningslab., HUS
When: Wednesday 4th of March, 14:15 – 15:00.
Where: Stort Auditorium, 3rd floor, Sentralblokken
Chair: Pål Njølstad

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New PhD-Coordinator at Department of Clinical Science

Present PhD-Coordinator Kristian Jensen will start a new job on 01.05.2015.  Higher Executive Officer Irene Lavik Hjelmaas will then take over all PhD-related tasks.  Kristian will also be absent between 27.02.2015 – 06.04.2015, so during this period Irene may also be contacted regarding PhD-related inquiries.  Irene may be reached at phone 55 58 88 46 or e-mail  Irene Hjelmaas

Public defence Week 10

Carla FernandesCarla Patrica Duarte Fernandes will have her public defence on Thursday March 5, 2015
Trial lecture: Thursday March 5 2015, kl.09.15
Topic: ”Genomics neurodevelopment and neuropsychiatry – what studies of cognition can tell us about psychosis risk”
Place: Auditoriet, Barneklinikken, Jonas Lies vei 65
Public defence: Thursday March 5 2015, kl.11.15
Place: Auditoriet, Barneklinikken, Jonas Lies vei 65
Title of dissertation: ”A Genetic  study of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  A cognitive endophenotype approach”
1st opponent Professor Gary Donohoe, National  University of Ireland
2nd opponent Ph.d. Robert Lyle, Universitetet i Oslo

Press relase

 

 

 

Public defence Week 10

Sivakumaran, DhanasekaranDhanasekaran Sivakumaran will have his public defence on Thursday March 5, 2015
Trial lecture: Thursday March 5, 2015,kl. 09:15
Topic: ”Tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection: dignostic strategies in high- and low endemic settings”
Place: Audtorium 1, Bygg for biologiske basalfag
Public defence: Thursday March 5, 2015 kl. 11.15
Place: Audtorium 1, Bygg for biologiske basalfag
Title of dissertation: ”Biomarkersof mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and disease in children in Southern India”
1st  Opponent: MD, Ph.D. Søren Tetens Hoff, Statens Serum Institute, København, Danmark
2nd. Opponent :Ph.D Ulf R. Dahle Folkehelseinstituttet

 Press relase

 

Public defence Week 10

Jan Anker JahnsenJan Anker Jahnsen will have his public defence on Friday March 6, 2015
Trial lecture: Thursday March 5, 2015, 15.15
Topic: ”Topogy and pharmacological importance of ionotropic glutamate channels (NMDA and AMPA receptors)”
Place: Auditorium 1, Bygg for Biologiske basalfag
Public defence: Friday March 6, 2015, 10.15
Place: Audtorium 1, Bygg for biologiske basalfag
Title of dissertation: ”Predicted signal peptides, and the role of the N-terminal tail, at the monoamine G-protein coupled receptors 5-HT 2C and a 2c”
1st  Opponent: Proffesor Dan Larhammar, Uppsala Universitet, Sverige
2nd. Opponent : Professor emeritus Ole Jacob Broch, Bergen

 Press relase

 

New Publications

Week 09/2015.

Global Coronary Artery Plaque Area is Associated with Myocardial Hypoperfusion in Women with Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction.
Eskerud I, Gerdts E, Nordrehaug JE, Lønnebakken MT.
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2015 Feb 18. PMID: 25692527

Based on last week’s search forDepartment of Clinical Science AND Bergen”. If you have publications which are not covered by this search, send the reference to olivera.bozickovic@k2.uib.no

This week`s editorial

Eva GerdtsStudents enrolled in the medical degree programme who are stationed at Førde hospital, will receive interdisciplinary training as part of the practical teaching plan for 3rd internal medicine semester. The students are thrilled about having tasks with a great degree of responsibility involved and receiving feedback on their performance, as well as having the opportunity to work and learn interdisciplinary with nursing students. Skills obtained through interdisciplinary cooperation with other groups of health workers are already included in the learning outcomes that our students should achieve, but the training is not very well organized. Of course it is also unreasonable that similar learning programs are not offered students stationed at Haugesund or Stavanger hospitals. Professor Anders Bærheim at Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care has now taken the initiative of establishing Interdisciplinary Training as a mandatory part of the work placement in internal medicine and surgical disciplines. The project will be developed in collaboration with the UiB coordinators for teaching at Haugesund and Stavanger hospitals, as well as the University Colleges of Stord/Haugesund and Stavanger, both of which offer nursing degrees, all based on the Førde model. The project will also be an important contribution in order for K2 to achieve its strategic goal of strengthening the regional teaching Collaboration.

Verify publications in CRIStin

This is a reminder to all scientific employees that they verify that publications from 2014 are registered in CRIStin.  The institute’s deadline for registering publications is 27.02.2015.  The scientific employee is responsible for adding publications that are missing, but the administration may assist if you encounter any problems (send an e-mail to Kristian Jensen) Click here for information on how to add publications (in Norwegian)

Cristin-org-200

Supervisor seminar 25.03.2015

The faculty is inviting to a supervisor seminar on March 25.  The event will take place at Scandic Hotell Bergen City at 09:00 – 15:45.  The course will be led by Roland Jonsson and Per Bakke.  Binding registration is done my sending an e-mail to Mirza.mujic@mofa.uib.no by March 1. Click here for poster about the event (in Norwegian). Click here for program (in Norwegian).

 

The strategy seminar

Eystein HusebyeNext week K2’s research group leaders and the heads of the teaching sections will meet for a strategy seminar.  A main topic will be the organization of the institute.  Quite a lot works well at the 2-year old K2, and I want to highlight the administrative services as a good example.  Less successful is the dividing of the organizational structure into teaching sections and research groups.  We wish to discuss the organizational structure as a whole with the aim of achieving a more operational and efficient institute structure which involves the research group leaders to a larger extent than before.

 Another main issue is collaboration with other institutions.  I wish for a tighter and more dynamic collaboration with the hospital sections attached to K2.  This collaboration is currently probably working best at the smaller and professionalized departments such as the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Children’s Clinic, Medical Genetics and Rheumatology.  However, a large potential for improvement exists regarding the collaboration with very large departments such as, for instance, the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Heart Disease.  If all leaders at the hospital and the institutes were represented in each other’s leader groups, then this could perhaps promote this collaboration.  Here we can learn from the exciting solutions they have in Trondheim, where hospital and university leadership collaborate very closely.

 Nothing has been decided in advance.  Thus, I hope for a creative and constructive seminar.

 Eystein Husebye
Head of Department