Monthly Archives: October 2017

NAG, NAG, NAG* Or: Why you should participate on Department Day

With the arrival of fall comes our annual meeting point; the department day. This year we have chosen to change the name and some of the content. In addition to being our annual HSE-meeting, we will focus on the department’s internal life, as well as the work processes our former department management started this spring. We have invited the faculty to present a status on the evaluation of the reorganization from 2013, as well as the new law for state employees. And we will, most likely, hear from our new head of department and the new plans and expectations he or she has for us. This year we would very much like to make time for some drinks and a chat in Café Christie. Perhaps this will be your opportunity to have a talk with our new head of department or a colleague you haven’t seen in a while. I hope as many as possible will attend both the gathering and the following mingling. Link to registration form here.

With the fall comes another possibility for communication; the annual employee appraisal talk
*(the abbreviation works so much better in Norwegian). All employees, regardless of duration or percentage of employment, is to be offered appraisal talks from his or her immediate leader. In the following days, I myself will invite the administration for their annuals talks. All group leaders will be sent an overview of the employees in their groups, for whom they are responsible to offer an appraisal talk. In order to avoid nag from me, I suggest you start organizing the remaining talks already now. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any uncertainties or questions.

I look forward to seeing you all in the Aula in November.

All the best, Julie

 

New publications

Here are recent publications with contributions from K2 based on last week’s search on PubMed (and optionally articles that have not been included in previous lists). This time the list includes in total 22 recent publications. The entries appear in the order they were received from NCBI. If you have publications that are not included in this or previous lists, please send the references to Johnny Laupsa-Borge.

Continue reading

Next years’ application round to the Research Council of Norway

  • There are several changes to next years’ announcements from the Research Council of Norway (RCN): The deadline for FRIPRO is changed to 25 April.
  • The deadline for the programs BEDREHELSE/BEHANDLING/HELSEVEL is also set to 25 April. As for now, RCN could not inform us as to whether there will be restrictions on the number of applications submitted with the same deadline.
  • The program KVINNEHELSE will not be announced during 2018. The allocated budget was spent during the 2017-announcement.
  • The call text for FRIPRO is published and will become active 14 March 2018.
  • You can find information about the evaluation criteria for FRIPRO on RCN’s application review process webpage.
  • It is expected that PhD- and postdoctoral candidates in FPIPRO projects will incorporate a stay abroad into their fellowship period.
  • Project managers of funded Researcher Projects and Young Research Talent projects are expected to apply for grants from the European Research Council (ERC). This expectation was not there for managers of Researcher Projects, except for Toppforsk leaders, during previous years’ announcements.

    – Amra

The Norwegian Cancer symposium 2017 on Precision Medicine

We would like to remind you of the invitation to The Norwegian Cancer symposium 2017 on Precision Medicine.

It will take place at Scandic Holmenkollen Park, December 4-6, 2017 in Oslo, Norway.

The meeting gathers leading national and international speakers in the field of precision medicine, and topics include the following:

 

  • Computational Cancer Genomics
  • Tumor Immunology and the microenvironment
  • Single cell analysis for disease trajectories and Liquid Biopsies
  • Monitoring cancer genetics in body fluids
  • Translational and clinical genomicsFor the overview of speakers and program, please visit the symposium web site:

https://www.2017.cancersymposia.no/

Please note that early registration ends at November 1

 

“An artist of the floating world”

Jone Trovik, portrett til disputasSomewhat unfamiliar? This novel was released in 1986, with a Norwegian translation in 1987. The author Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel prize of literature for 2017. The plot is set in the author’s country of birth Japan, and this is the connection with this editorial: the University of Bergen’s strategic partnership with Japanese research organizations. Together with NTNU and Innovation Norway, UiB have joined forces to approach potential Japanese collaborators in relation to research and innovation. During spring 2017 former Dean Langeland headed a delegation visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, where themes discussed spanned from stem cell research to geriatric medicine.

Japan is well known for technology (and labor effort). Do you have ideas/thoughts related to your research that may profit by Japanese industrial cooperation? Our Vice Dean of Innovation, Helge Raeder, is eager to convey ideas/contact/collaboration. A new Japanese visit is planned for spring 2018. Perhaps you should be joining?

Speaking of innovation and future research: Horizon 2020 hosts a kick-off seminar the 31st of October. Please sign up! Both the Head of Bergen University as well as “our” Dean Bakke is eager to encourage researchers to apply for international research funds. The institute has research advisors for helping you during such application processes; make use of them!

Another action point from the University leadership is increased digitalization: how may this be used to save resources? Are there tasks in your everyday work life better handled by a computer than by manual labor? I am unsure if the hospital’s speech recognition program is a very good example, but the principle is illustrative: instead of secretaries writing the doctors’ notes, the dictates are transcribed by a computer. And thanks to machine learning (!), the writings turn out as (a little) more understandable for every note I make. But in the beginning, there were a lot of absolutely incomprehensible phrases written in the patient files; almost as if one should be “An artist of the floating world”.

Jone

Johnny Ludvigsson Childhood Diabetes Fund Prize to Pål Njølstad

The Swedish Childhood Diabetes Foundation (Barndiabetesfonden) annually distributes Johnny Ludvigsson Prizes – one for prominent childhood diabetes research in the Nordic region, and the other for younger childhood diabetes researchers in Sweden.

The Johnny Ludvigsson Childhood Diabetes Fund Prize for Prominent Childhood Diabetes Research in the Nordic Region is awarded the Norwegian researcher Pål Njølstad, Professor at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital. K2 congratulates!

In the grounds of this award, the Childhood Diabetes Foundation’s prize committee mention Professor Njølstad’s breakthrough in clinical practice for children with a mutation in KCNJ11, and his major international influence on the development of personalized treatment of unusual forms of diabetes.

Read more here. (Link in Swedish.)

The Postgraduate School of Medical Research’s Network Luncheon

Dear all,

The Postgradute School of Clinical Medicine is preparing a new Network Luncheon for all PhD fellows and researchers at K1 and K2 departments.

The upcoming Network Luncheon will take place Tuesday 24 October, in the  Konferanserom of BBB (in front of auditoriums 2 and 4), from 11:30 to 13:00.

Take a break from your daily lab-routine and enjoy a free lunch, socialize and hear talks from fellow PhD students, and on top of all that, earn one ECTS point!

Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!

Looking forward,

Solveig

Flow Cytometry | Seminar 2 November | Imaging Mass Cytometry

The Flow Cytometry core facility invites to a seminar about Imaging Mass Cytoemtry. Fluidigm and AH Diagnostics are coming to visit and will tell us about their new imaging module.

Imaging Mass Cytoemtry enables analysis of more than 40 parameters in tissue sections, freeze sections, formalin fix parafine embedded sections and cell smears, using metal labeled antibodies and routine immunohistochemical methods.

Time: Thursday 2 November, at. 13–14.
Venue: Auditorium B301, Sentralblokken, Haukeland University Hospital.

Deadline for registration: 26 October.

Read more here.

H. M. King Olav Vs Cancer Research Award 2018

The Norwegian Cancer Society invites to the nomination of candidates for the H. M. King Olav Vs Cancer Research Award 2018.

H. M. King Olav Vs Cancer Research Award of NOK 1 000 000 is awarded annually to a cancer researcher or research group that has helped to promote the quality and scope of Norwegian cancer research. H.M. King Harald awards the prize in a celebratory selection in the Old Hall of Fame, University of Oslo.

The prize has a high prestige in the Norwegian cancer research community and goes to the very best in the whole range of Norwegian cancer research. The prize will go to research groups or researchers who are still active and contribute in cancer research today.

To honor the researchers’ efforts, the Cancer Society wishes to invite Norwegian institutions to promote proposals for candidates for the H. M. King Olav Vs Cancer Research Award 2018. As more and more groundbreaking research is carried out by research communities, special attention is given to nomination of research groups.

Nominations should be sent by email to Lars Klæboe.

Deadline for nomination: 15 November 2017.

Continue reading

New publications

Here are recent publications with contributions from K2 based on last week’s search on PubMed (and optionally articles that have not been included in previous lists). This time the list includes in total 15 recent publications. The entries appear in the order they were received from NCBI. If you have publications that are not included in this or previous lists, please send the references to Johnny Laupsa-Borge.

Continue reading

”The Invisible”

Jone Trovik, portrett til disputasTo follow-up the literary references: the title is from a play by Ludvig Holberg. This was also the title winning the Holberg high-school competition some years ago, a project dealing with fraud.

At the last meeting in the committee of extended research management, research fraud was pointed at as one focus area. We should strive to be attentive to this ethical aspect when planning, conducting and presenting our research.

Forging results we all acknowledge as fraud, but there are several more subtle areas where our ethical consciousness might be stretched to benefit ourselves. What about the tendency of selective citation of references; those supporting our own hypothesis are preferred to those disagreeing. Selective publishing is another; it is somehow more convenient to publish positive (meaning: statistical significant) results than those without differences. And what if the interesting (and significant) results from the former study of the newest promising biomarker could not be validated in the following study? We do however have a moral responsibility to publicly present our conducted research, both for the sake of those providing research funding and participating patients contributing with biologic samples/clinical data, as well as to not introduce new treatment algorithms prematurely. “The Invisible” (meaning unpublished) studies may in effect be one form of fraud.

And do we follow the Vancouver treaty? Holding the title as research group leader or head of clinical department, is that equivalent to actually plan, conduct, analyse and write every paper from the group/department? Or should some of these stated as authors in reality be the Invisible?

I would like to remind you all of the OSCE exam 8th of November; those not already having stated who will contribute: please do so to Ketil Grong (he is in need of more qualified helpers).

The Day of the Institute (K2) will be hosted the 29th of November. We do hope our new Head of Institute will be formally appointed at that time, and will actively contribute by presenting the upcoming visions for our Department of Clinical Science.

Jone

HSE corner: Fire protection training in the autumn of 2017

All staff at UiB shall have completed fire protection training, both theory and practice, which is enacted in the Fire Act and the HSE Regulations.

A course runs over two hours – divided into one hour theory and one hour practical fire extinguishing.

There is a total enrolment from the department, and interested should contact Marius Alvheim in the expedition.

Read more about the fire protection training here. (Link in Norwegian.)

Best regards,
Julie

Registering final holidays

The deadline for registering final holidays was 1 October. However, there are still many who have not done this.

Anyone with remaining holidays must register in requested holidays as soon as possible and no later than 20 October!

If you do not register application for holidays, the employer can decide when the holidays should be taken, pursuant to section 6 of the Holidays Act.

If you have any questions regarding holidays and registration, please see the pagablog.

Or contact HR consultant Kristine Kleppan Blikra.

Seminar on open access to scientific articles | 26 October

The government’s goal is that by 2024 all Norwegian scientific articles financed by public funds shall be openly available:

  • Scientific articles should be made available. Researchers should publish in open journals where they are professionally sound.
  • All scientific articles must be deposited in the scientific archive, and this will be a prerequisite for the articles to count in the performance-based funding.

In light of this, and in connection with the International Open Access Week, the University Library invites to a seminar on open access to research.

Time: Thursday 26 October at. 10-12.
Location: Dragefjellet School, Faculty of Law, Auditorium 4.

The event is free and open to all, and will be streamed.

Continue reading

Horizon2020 kick-off event for MED researchers

Horizon2020 is about to embark on the last three years of it’s existence with a bigger budget than ever. On that occasion, the Division of Research Management at UiB and the Research Council of Norway arrange a kick-off meeting where you will have the possibility to:

  • find relevant calls for your research area,
  • get advice on how to succeed with your application,
  • listen to experience from Professor Cecilie Svanes from the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care with being a partner on EU projects, and
  • listen to Professor Emmet McCormack from the Department of Clinical Science talk about his personal experience with evaluating EU proposals.

Time: 31 October at. 13:45–15:15.
Venue: Scandic Ørnen Hotel, Bergen.

Registration.

Scientific Writing Seminar | 13–14 December

CCBIO have received funding from NFR and SIU for an INTPART program, where students’ education and exchange is promoted through collaboration between CCBIO and the Boston based Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School. Elisabeth Wik is coordinating the program. Several CCBIO-INTPART seminars and courses will take place the coming years, and CCBIO is happy to be inviting you to the first seminar in this series on 13–14 December – a two-day seminar in scientific writing – with valuable input in the program for both students, postdocs and professors.

The seminar is open (requires registration), free of charge, and includes lunch both days.

Time: 13–14 December.
Venue: Birkhaugsalen, Sentralblokken, 3rd floor, Haukeland University Hospital.

Program.

Registration.

Deadline for registration: 30 November.

Continue reading

Research funding from Vita hjertego’

Here is a reminder of the Vita hjertego’ grant 1 kr til Hjertesaken, which for 2018 announces up to NOK 600,000 distributed on one or more research projects and other activities related to preventive cardiac health.

Information. (Link in Norwegian.)

Deadline for application: 30 October.

Here, you can see who has previously received grants.

Questions can be directed to vitahjertego@mills.no.