Monthly Archives: September 2016

This weeks editorial – Innovation and K2

Per BakkeThere is an increasing focus in both the EU and the Norwegian authorities on innovation and commercialization of research results. Increased cooperation between academia and industry are in demand, particularly cooperation with the so-called SMEs (Small Medium sized Enterprises), ie small and medium enterprises. The reason is increased activity among small and medium-sized enterprises are a mainstay to relaunch the economy.
For many in academia are collaborating with industry a somewhat strange idea. People have  come to me and said that this threatens the free research. I think that we should look at this as an opportunity, not only to think in new research projects and implementation of studies, but also financing the research. Also Norwegian industry is increasingly interested in research. The number of companies that has applied NFR for research funding has doubled in two years, and the increase is strongest in Rogaland and Hordaland.
They are many Research environments in K2 that should be of interest to the industry, not only because of the topics we are researching, but also because of the expertise we sit on when it comes to doing research.
One challenge is to create contact with small and medium enterprises. Kine Gregersen from BTO will be on K2 every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month and will help contact as recently featured in an email. Maybe K2 in addition would create a meeting place with the industri?
As an example of the Norwegian authorities’ interest in innovation will eventually mentioned that NFR “will stimulate health industry”

Per

The HSE corner

informasjon_til_verneombud-1024x703It’s that time again where we choose our safety representatives again!

Saftey representatives are elected for two years at a time. Current term of office for safety representatives at the University of Bergen (UiB) expires when the year ends, and now we’re choosing our safety representatives for the period January 1st 2017 – December 31st 2018.

Deadline: October 17th
For more information including the role of safety representative and how the election work, you can press here

 

New names

Introducing Sunniva Todnem Sakkestad, cand.med University of Bergen. She started as phd-student at K2 in September within infection medicine and immunologi, connected to ETECvac-study. Main supervisor is Kurt Hanevik.  If you want to say hello, you will find her at 5th floor in the Lab building.

 

Have you remembered to do this?

vilvite-bergen-scienceThis year’s HSE day will be held on Wednesday, November 23rd at the VilVite center in Thormøhlens Gate 51. The HSE is mandatory for all full time employees at K2
Link to registration can be found here
The invitation can be found here

If anyone has questions about the registration you can contact Ingvild Lekven Jonsvoll in the expedition 8etg. lab-building. (Ingvild.Jonsvoll@UiB.no – 55973050)

Career Day for all PhD candidates – Thursday 6 October

Welcome to career day for all PhD candidates at MOF! It will take place October 6 from 10.00 to 14.00 in auditorium 4, BBB.

You can find the program here.

The Career Center will present useful tips when writing job applications/CVs, former PhD candidates will talk about their career paths, and some companies will have stands in the area outside the auditorium. There will also be a simple lunch and opportunity to socialize with other PhD candidates. An updated schedule can be found here: https://w3.uib.no/nb/mofa/100454/karrieredag

Link to sign up: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=2449399

 

Follow Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry on Facebook!

14188594_1166844113355011_4246962902318979497_oThe Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry now has its own Facebook Page!

We will use this page to link to research news, events and anything that may be of interest to students and staff at the MOF.

Follow our page and check back there once in a while to see what is happening!

We also appreciate if you can like and share the posts in there – this way they will be read by even more people.

You could also tip the senior consultant ingrid.hagerup@uib.no  directly if you know of something exciting happening that deserves some attention on Facebook or Instagram.

New names

14456814_1115300855231348_863556757_oIntroducing Kine Gregersen, business developer in BTO. Kine will be available at K2 on the 8th floor, 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. If you want to say hello, you can find her at ‘Baklommen’ in the laboratory building. Ask Ingvild Lekven Jonsvoll in the expedition if you are unsure where ‘Baklommen’ is.
She is available by mail aswell kine.gregersen@bergento.no

Public PhD Defence, Week 40

Ingvild Løberg TangenIngvild Løberg Tangen  will defend her PhD thesis on Friday, October 7th, 2016
Trial lecture: Friday, October 7th, 2016 10:15
Topic:  “Macro- and micro-environmental factors in relation to hormone signaling in endometrial cancer”
Place:  Stort auditorium, Haukeland Universitetssykehus
Public defense: Friday, October 7th, 2016 12:15
Place:  Stort auditorium, Haukeland Universitetssykehus
Title of dissertation:  “Hormone signaling related factors as biomarkers in endometrial cancer”
1st opponent: Researcher Johanne Pijnenborg, TweeSteden Ziekenhuis, Tilburg, The Netherlands
2nd opponent: Assistant professor Andrea Romano, Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands

Press release (in Norwegian)

Call for research grants for stays abroad for employees in permanent academic positions – 2017

Reference is made to the announcement and application forms on the faculty website: http: //www.uib.no/mofa/66285/finansiering-av-utenlandsopphold-ansatte-ved-mof.

Three types of UiB employees are eligeble for the grants:

1) Scientific staff in permanent positions. The position must be funded by the University, and an application for research sabbatical including a stay abroad must have been submitted by the deadline for sabbaticals (1 May). Deadline: 1 October.

2) Postdoctoral fellows with UiB funding.
Deadlines 1 March and 1 October.

3) PhD candidates with UiB funding/UiB research fellow (PhD) positions: PhD candidates funded by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen, can apply for research grant limited to 25.000nok. Application deadline are 1. March and 1. October

Call for proposals and application forms in English: http://www.uib.no/en/mofa/67056/financial-support-stays-abroad-employees-faculty

Research Scholarship for stays abroad in the sabbatical leave can be searched by academic staff in permanent positions that are funded by the University of Bergen / Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. When applying for a research grant applicant must have applied for a sabbatical by the stipulated deadline (May 1st.), Where the research stay at the foreign institution included in the sabbatical leave. It is also a prerequisite that parallel application for funding through the Meltzer Fund which deadline is :December 1st.

Information about Meltzer Fund are here: http://meltzerfondet.no/

Free Internet Courses on Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics

Our introductory course in Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics (UU 87,307 7.5 ECTS) for spring 2017 is now open for registration.

The course, which is entirely free to EU / EAA citizens, is suitable for students and researchers who are interested in learning how complex biological processes can be studied down to the finest level of chemical detail with the help of informatics, and how it can be used for understanding life processes and to develop drugs and improved pharmacotherapy.

The course is completely online and takes place during the period January 15 – March 23; for more information and preliminary notification see www.pharmbio.org<http://www.pharmbio.org>.

At the request of many former participants we now also offer two additional online courses:

I. Applied pharmaceutical Structural Bioinformatics (UU 87 309 5 ECTS) (January 15 – February 28)

II. Applied Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics (UU 87320 5 ECTS) (April 2 – May 16)

More information is available at www.pharmbio.org/pages/other_courses<http://www.pharmbio.org/pages/other_courses>.

I would also be grateful if you could pass on the information about the courses from your undergraduate and graduate students as we find it difficult to reach out to them.

Genomics Club Invitation

Genomics Club announces new season of scientific Meetings.
Our first meeting will take place on the 5th October, 12:00 in room 6.1, Laboratoriebygget (6th floor).

During inauguration meeting we will have three 20 minutes presentations from people experienced with CRISPR technology:

Kornel Labun – CRISPR tools for XXI century genome engineering

Johanna Lüdeke – CRISPR knockout of HADH in HEK293 cells

Simon Dankel – CRISPR applied in functional genetics Research

If you want to be informed of later Genomics Club meetings, please make sure to be included on the Club list by sending an email to tomasz.stokowy@k2.uib.no.

Later meetings will NOT be advertised on the K2/K1 news letters.

Welcome!

Financial support for stays abroad for employees at the Faculty

The purpose of the grant is to cover initial and additional expenditures in connection with research-related stays abroad. It is also possible to apply for travel expenses to be covered.

Three types of UiB employees are eligeble for the grants:

1) Scientific staff in permanent positions. The position must be funded by the University, and an application for research sabbatical including a stay abroad must have been submitted by the deadline for sabbaticals (1 May). Deadline: 1 October.

2) Postdoctoral fellows with UiB funding. Deadlines 1 March and 1 October.

3) PhD candidates with UiB funding/UiB research fellow (PhD) positions: PhD candidates funded by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen, can apply for research grant limited to 25.000nok. Application deadline are 1. March and 1. October

Applications should be sent by internal mail or ordinary post to:
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Postboks 7804
5020 BERGEN

A report is to be submitted to the faculty immediately upon return, no later than one month after returning to Bergen. The report should be sent to the address above.

Vacation registration

It’s time to start planning your leftover holidays. The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has set the following deadlines for application for holidays for 2016:

Holiday Deadline for request Fixed holiday
Easter Holiday (week 12) 01.03.2016 15.03.2016
Winter Holiday (week 13) 01.03.2016 15.03.2016
Summer holiday (at least 3 weeks between (15.05-15.09) 01.04.2016 15.04.2016
Autumn Holiday (week 41) 15.08.2016 01.09.2016
Any leftover Holidays 01.10.2016 15.10.2016

 

Application for leftover holidays should be sent in PAGA no later than 01.10.2016.

Information about holidays and how to register holidays can be found here: http://pagaweb.w.uib.no/english/5-vacation/ If you have any questions regarding Holidays and registering please contact Personnel Consultant: Elin Myhrvold – Email: elin.Myhrvold@UiB.no

Call for research grants for stays abroad for postdocs – application round in autumn 2016

You will find the announcement and application forms on the Faculty website: http://www.uib.no/mofa/66285/finansiering-av-utenlandsopphold-ansatte-ved-mof

You can find the call for proposals and application forms in English here: http://www.uib.no/en/mofa/67056/financial-support-stays-abroad-employees-faculty

The announcement apply research scholarships for university-funded postdoctoral fellows at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen. Post Doctors who are externally funded (eg NFR, Helse Vest, State Educational Loan Fund, the Cancer Society, etc.) Must seek funding source about støtte.Siden grant is intended as a partial financing of the stay abroad, encouraged all postdocs who want a stay abroad to seek external funding through other arrangements. Research has its own scholarship base for researcher mobility which gives a brief presentation of mobility grant from the Research Council and other actors: http://www.euraxess.no/prognett-euraxess/stipendbasen/1232443083609

Application deadline is October 1st  2016

Medical research should be more applicable

NarrEmphasis new guidelines for research grants funded by both Samarbeidsorganet and The Recearch Council of Norway. Scientific quality is still an important criterion in the evaluation of the applications, but now the patent shall benefit and health services added as much weight. The last point demonstrate the need and importance of new knowledge and innovation potential in the short and long term. In other words, high quality or high benefit alone is not enough to reach the competition for funds.

The desire for patients to initiate research and that research results quickly, will be implemented in the clinic is understandable, but a unilateral focus on this may have negative aspects. Applicants may steer away from ambitious high-risk projects that aim to address the more fundamental issues at the expense of the “low-hanging fruits” that investigate whether diet A gives slightly lower long-term blood sugar than diet B. Persistence is important. It takes a long time to build up good Research environments, and establishing infrastructure such as patient records, equipment platforms and a powerful Research Group.

Nevertheless, this trend is something we have to deal with. When we write applications it is  important to think in an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional way to attack a problem from many different angles. Here are user intervention, regional and national cooperatives important points. To help our recearchers, we now strengthen the  Research advice on K2. MOFs research advisor Itane Sloper-Krivokapić will have office hours four days a week at K2 on the 8th floor. In addition, we will also employ a researchadvisor this fall. . Bergen technology transfer (BTO) will be present at K2 every other Tuesday, and will be able to advise on how to write innovation into applications. In addition, Samarbeidsorganet has established a resource center for innovation that can help to implement research findings in the clinic.

All of this will hopefully lead to New excellent research projects With good fundings at K2.

Eystein

Article in NEJM

Jan Erik Nordrehaug

Jan Erik Nordrehaug

Congratulations to Jan Erik Nordrehaug as the last author of a non-industry sponsored paper on coronary stents in New England Journal of Medicine. Also Ottar Nygård, Dennis Nilsen og Alf-Inge Larsen at K2 are co-authors. Reference: N Engl J Med. 2016 Aug 29th

New guidelines for the Open Access publication fund at UiB

The University Board has adopted new guidelines for the publication fund which will take effect from October 1st, 2016. The principal changes are:

Only article processing charges (APC) to articles in Open Access journals will be fully covered. To be eligible the journal must be registered in the Directory of Open Access Journals, https://doaj.org

Author fees to publish Open Access books are also fully covered.

Corresponding authors to Open Access articles in subscription journals on level 2 in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, may apply for reimbursement of 50% of the APC. The application must be submitted before publishing, and the refund will be paid based on documented APC expenses.

Open Access articles in subscription journals on level 1 are no longer covered by the publication fund.

Applications will be granted based on the complete guidelines.

A new application form will be available from October 1st. Funding is only guaranteed when an application has been submitted and granted before publishing.

If you have questions, please contact bora@uib.no

Invitation to CCBIO Special Seminar October 11th: S.Net Pre-Conference Event: Ethical and Social Aspects of Cancer Research

cancer_research_ethicsWe’d like to invite you to attend the CCBIO Special Seminar October 11th: S.Net Pre-Conference Event: Ethical and Social Aspects of Cancer Research. This will be held in Auditorium 4, BB building, Jonas Lies vei 91.

This special seminar aims at bringing together researchers from the fields of oncology, medical ethics, priority setting in health care, and science and technology studies, in order to discuss topics ranging from the ethics of personalised medicine, the role of cancer biomarkers in clinical practice, cancer and extraordinary treatments that lead to ever longer lives, and issues of privacy in biobanks.

The seminar is also a pre-event to the 8th annual S.Net meeting, which will take place 12-14 October in Bergen, with several open parts, including all keynote lectures.

As you can see from the program (link below), we have both international and local speakers and many exciting topics. There will also be a lunch session outside of the auditorium, which always is a great opportunity for networking and social interaction. The seminar is open to all and free of charge, so please feel free to forward this invitation.

We would like to underline that all participants need to register through the below link within 5th of October 2016.

New Names

14423868_1110793502348750_1096619464_oIntroducing Daniel Cacabelos, B.Sc in Chemistry, PhD in Physiology. This Spanish researcher have just joined the Lipid Group as a Posdoctoral visiting researcher. If you want to say hello or go for hike with him you can find Daniel on the 8th floor in the laboratory building.