Emphasis 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