Monthly Archives: December 2015

2015 – Looking back at the K2 activities

Per BakkeIn this last editorial of the year it is time to look back at the K2 activities in 2015. With regards to education the main focus has been on the new curriculum in medicine. Although much work remains, the planning is well underway. Digital tools in teaching and examinations are coming. Although the vision of new, fully funded study places in pharmacy has not yet been realized, the Center for Pharmacy has made a great effort of raising the parliamentarians’ awareness of this issue. A new course in galenic pharmacy has been started.

The research activity and the outcome of grant applications have been very good. K2 researchers obtained seven new NFR projects this year, including a part in an infrastructure application that is coordinated from Oslo. K2 received about 60% of the new multi-year grants from Samarbeidsorganet as well as four new EU projects. The total funding received in various applications by K2 employees, will amount to approximately 93 million NOK which is 7 million more than we received from the government. There is however still a large potential for improved external funding.

The technical staff at the department makes important contributions to the successful research. I wish to give credit to Ersilia Bifulco, Jenny Zhang and Tove Folkestad who have reestablished the Forum for Technicians.

HSE is important to all of us. All the staff at K2 has received, or will be offered appraisal interviews annually.

A very tight department economy has left its mark on the activities this year. Although several research groups have received large grants, there are also groups that have not obtained external funding, and the department has had little to offer. I am grateful that people have shown understanding for the limitations linked to the tight budgets. On the bright side, the debt K2 gained by the reorganization of the faculty is now nearly liquidated. This means that in the coming years, there will be some money to promote the K2 activities.

Keywords for next year are the new curriculum in medicine, Ferdighetssenteret, The research unit for health surveys, a new strategy for K2, a structured process for grant applications, and the Forum for Technicians.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for a great effort in 2015, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Per

K2 Administration Christmas Holidays

Jul

From week 52 until Monday 4 January most of the K2 administration is out of office due to Christmas Holidays. The reception will be unmanned from Christmas Eve and until Monday 4 January.

For emergencies or urgent matters that can not wait until 4 January, the Chief of Administration will be available on private mobile phone. We wish  you all a joyful and peaceful Season and happy holidays.

Forum for Technicians has started up again

TFForum for Technicians has started up again, with a committee consisting of Jenny, Ersilia and Tove. In the last forum, that was held in December, one could propose topics for future Forum for Technicians meetings.Gingerbread, tangerines and mulled wine was served. The next meeting in the forum is planned for February 2016. Thanks to the committee for planning and organizing! The picture shows Tove, Beryl and Aud.

2016 Peder Sather Grant Call for Proposals

The Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study supports projects carried out by researchers at UC Berkeley in collaboration with researchers from eight Norwegian universities. The Center offers grants of between $10K and $25K. Funds are made available for one academic year.  Grants can support activities such as workshops, mini-conferences, virtual intellectual exchanges, the undertaking of exploratory and pilot studies, activities such as PhD student exchanges, longer-term stays for Principal Investigators, the collection and analysis of data, and other core research activities.

More information and application form can be found here.
Letter with call for proposals in Norwegian here.
Application deadline: 1 March 2016

Novo Nordisk Foundations Excellence for Young Researchers within Endocrinology

Attached please find an announcement regarding The Novo Nordisk Foundations Excellence Project for Young Researchers within Endocrinology.

Please do not hesitate to contact me, if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Susanne E. Hede, Ph.D
Scientific Officer
Novo Nordisk Fonden
+45 3527 6629 (direct)
+45 306 74829 (mobile)
suhq@novo.dk
CVR no 10 58 29 89

The Emeritus Society

Per BakkeThis week the institute arranged lunch for the Emeritus Society. The society consists of professors emeriti from K2. The emeriti make a very important contribution to the department in several fields, and are well worth a lunch.They manage most defenses at K2 as custos and are part of several committees that consider applicants for vacancies and applications for endowments. Several of them are still teaching, and last but not least, several of them still publish with K2 affiliation. All of this is free of charge for the Department!

The only thing they get in return is free access to university computer services, library services and E-mail lists. In addition they receive K2Nytt. The Emeritus Society is open to anyone who goes into retirement from a scientific position at K2. Membership is renewed annually.

We have good reason to thank the emeriti for the effort they make for K2!

Per

Emeriti

New Names

Lalit RaneWe present Lalit Rane, Postdoctoral fellow at Bjørn Tore Gjertsens group, Center for Cancer Biomarkers.

Lalit started with his work in December 2015 under supervision of Bjørn Tore Gjertsen. If anyone wants to say hello, you can find him on third floor in the lab building.

Invitation to an open meeting on the introduction of a new strategy for UiB

Welcome to an open meeting Thursday 14 January on the introduction of a new strategy for the University of Bergen 2016-2022

After an extensive process, the Board of the University of Bergen has adopted a new strategy for UiB, “Sea – Life – Society». Enthusiastic students and staff contributed many important suggestions and corrections along the way. Continue reading

Invitation to lunch meeting on crucial issues in science and society

Do you know enough about UiB’s crucial issues in science and society?
Study advisers, program coordinators and other interested parties are invited to hear more about UiB’s crucial issues in science and society.
See attatched invitation (in Norwegian)!

Best regards
Idunn B. Tandstad
Student advisor at Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT)

Pedagogical training for group leaders, spring 2016

UiB will arrange pedagogical training for group leaders on January 6-8. The course will give you the chance to discuss and plan your own teaching, hence it is an advantage that several group leaders from the same course participate at the same time. That way they can talk with each other about preparations for the course. For more information (in Norwegian) click here.

“Mitt UiB” available from 1 December

From 1 December, the new learning platform “Mitt UiB” is available to users.
Login from http://mitt.uib.no.
All employees will be offered training in December, according to information provided earlier in dialogue with the faculty administration.
You can find further information and course calendar on the DigUiB websites.

Best regards

Kari Anne Omdahl
Project DigUiB / Learning Platform Student Affairs
University of Bergen
www.uib.no
Tel: +47 55 58 24 46

Invitation to the Network Conference in Evidence-Based Practice

22HiBWelcome to the network conference in evidence-based practice 5 -6 April 2016!
This year we welcome you to the University College’s new and beautiful Campus Kronstad.

We invite you to two eventful days of exciting lectures, workshops and poster exhibitions. As usual we focus on the implementation of evidence-based practice in practice and education.
Here are some of the topics:
* Implementing the Patient Safety Programme
* User participation
* Evidence based research
* Implementation of guidelines
* Knowledge Translation
* National guidelines Continue reading

Invitation to the Internationalisation Conference 2016

SIUWelcome to the Internationalisation Conference 2016 (IK16). The conference is held in Stavanger 9 – 10 March 2016. The University of Stavanger is host for the conference.

The Internationalisation conference is next year’s most important meeting place for everyone who works with the internationalisation of higher education in Norway. The conference is organized in cooperation between Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU), Universities and University Colleges. Continue reading

Call within INFRAIA-2016-2017

The infrastructure programme (RI programme) in H2020 currently has a call for cooperation for development and better exploitation of national infrastructures:
«INTEGRATING AND OPENING RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES OF EUROPEAN INTEREST» (INFRAIA-2016-2017) (so-called Integrating Actitvities)

Those of you who have participated before, know that chosen projects get funds for three different activities:
Continue reading

Public PhD Defense, Week 51

Marie KarlsenMarie Karlsen will defend her PhD thesis on Friday December 18, 2015
Trial lecture: Thursday December 17, 2015, 14:15
Topic: “The TLR system, connecting the innate and adaptive immune system in physiological and autoimmune conditions”
Place: Auditorium 2, BB-bygget, Jonas Lies vei 91
Public defense: Friday December 18 2015, 09:15
Place: Auditorium 2, BB-bygget, Jonas Lies vei 91
Title of dissertation: “Toll like receptors in primary Sjögren’s syndrome – special emphasis on B cells”
1st opponent Ph.d. Chiara Baldini, Universitetet i Pisa, Italia
2nd opponent: Ph.d. Peter Szodoray, Universitetet i Oslo

Press release (in Norwegian)