Monthly Archives: May 2018

Two new opportunities for performing high-quality research studies: FHU/RUHS and the EasyTrial booking system

FHU/ RUHS (Forskningsenhet for helseundersøkelser/ Research Unit for Health Surveys) www.uib.no/nb/fhu , www.uib.no/en/ruhs is a new core facility at K2 that was officially opened in November 2017. The aim is to undertake clinical health surveys. (Projects that need hospital facilities for the participants are performed at Haukeland University Hospital.) FHU is a collaboration between the University of Bergen and Haukeland University hospital, anchored at K2, and has received funding for establishment from the Bergen Research Foundation. Until now FHU has performed approximately 400 investigations in persons participating in the projects Psorax35 (PI Steinar Kåre Tveit) and the Carbfunc (PI Simon Dankel). We are about to start the large HUSK3 study (PI Eva Gerdts), and we are finalizing the plans for the RHINESSA 4^th generation study (PI Cecilie Svanes) that will start after the summer. These projects cover a broad spectrum of research, addressing psoriasis, obesity, cardiology and respiratory health; and different study designs such as intervention and population based studies.

FHU/ RUHS has since the opening November 2017 needed a booking system, in order to allocate dates, personnel and equipment to the participants in the research projects undertaken at the facility. The University of Bergen has since 2015 been trying to provide a booking system for its core facilities. FHU, supported by Per Bruvold at Innkjøpsavdelingen, initiated a bidding process in November 2017. Four different systems applied, two of them were assessed for further consideration, and the system EasyTrial (https://www.easytrial.net ) has been selected. EasyTrial is an online Clinical Trial Management and Electronic Data Capture System for administration of clinical trial tasks (operational and logistical). It includes a calendar and appointment system to manage correspondence with participants and allocate human resources and equipment. The system is based in Denmark, and has been used in Sweden, Germany, Portugal, England and USA. It has also been used by the Norwegian Cancer Registry. EasyTrial is compliant with good clinical practice (GCP), 21 CFR Part 11, EU GDPR and database security legislation. For those who might be interested a representative for EasyTrial will present this system at the FHU localities in Haukelandsbakken 45 June 8^th. You may contact study nurse Linda Tveit to participate.

You are welcome to contact me in the case that you want to discuss performing studies at FHU /RUHS.

Assembly

There will be held an open assembly Wednesday 29th May from 0915-1000 on the evaluation report of the reorganization of the faculty. The assembly will be held in room B302 in Sentralblokken.

During the assembly, the dean will present the recommendations from the report, as well as information on how the faculty will proceed with the recommendations. There will also be time for questions and comments.

Somatic and germ-line aspects of cancer-related deep sequencing

Are you interested in mathematical or computational modeling of biological systems, using digital tools to analyze biological data, or in making your research more transdisciplinary?

We are happy to announce that prof. Eivind Hovig (University of Oslo & Oslo University Hospital) will give a talk this time. He will talk about their experiences from the sequencing work in the Norwegian Cancer Genomics Consortium, collaboration with deCODE on analysing the genetic landscape of Norwegians and about the variant frequency data base.

Time: May 30
Place: Lab-building at the Haukeland University Hospital, 6th floor, meeting room at Medical Genetics & Molecular Medicine.

“Digital Frukost” is an open breakfast seminar series focusing on research activities at the interface between the biological sciences and that of mathematics, computer science, physics or engineering. Examples of such research activities could be mathematical or computational modeling of biological systems, application of engineering/control systems theory on biological systems or inspired by biological systems, application of mathematics/statistics/machine learning to analyze big data in health or marine sector; from sensor systems, imaging or omics technologies etc. The seminars are arranged by the Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN: www.digitallifenorway.org).

We hope to see many of you there!

As food will be served, please register your attendence using this link.

The faculty day!

Meet our award winners at the faculty day!

Time: July 14
Place: Large auditorium in sentralblokken 3rd floor

Program for the day can be found here (norwegian only).

Vitenskap og politikk – en ny rolle for universitetene? (norwegian only)

UiB-rektor Dag Rune Olsen og UiO professor Dag O Hessen, forfatter av boken «Sannhet til salgs – et forsvar for den frie forskningen», møtes til debatt.

Science advice og science diplomacy er mye omtalt i akademia for tiden, og vektlegges i økende grad av institusjonenes ledere. Er fremtiden for Universitetene, i tider med mindre tiltro til kunnskap, i ferd med å bli premissleverandører for politikken? Kan universitetene bli politikkens redning og politikken bli universitetenes redning?

Sted: Litteraturhuset, Rom: Olav H. Hauge.
Tid: Torsdag 7. juni kl. 19:00.

Åpent arrangement/gratis adgang. Se også uib.no

Møtet er det første i en ny serie møter arrangert av Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub som setter lys på forholdet mellom akademia og samfunnet. Academia Europaea er det felleseuropeiske vitenskapsakademiet, og Bergen Hub skal være en platform for Akademiets aktiviteter i Norden med fokus på Norden, Nordområdene, marine og maritime forhold.

Vennlig hilsen

Kristin Hansen
Project Manager
Academia Europaea Knowledge Hub Region Bergen
https://aebergen.w.uib.no/

Invitasjon til å nominere kandidater til Kronprins Håkons forskningspris for astma og allergi 2018 (norwegian only)

Styret i Forskningsfondet for Astma og Allergi vedtok i sitt møte 26. mai 2016 å opprette Kronprins Haakons forskningspris for astma og allergi.

Prisen er på kroner 50 000,- og skal deles ut årlig til en forsker som har utvist en særskilt innsats innenfor fagfeltet astma og allergi.

Kronprins Haakons forskningspris for astma og allergi 2018

Prisen skal deles ut til en forsker som fortrinnsvis oppfyller følgende kriterier:

Fullført, eller i ferd med å fullføre phd
Må være publisert
Må være aktiv forsker på nominasjonstidspunktet
Må ha resultater å vise til fra sin forskning
Fokus i sin forskning på astma og allergi, eksem, eller andre relaterte fagområder som kan knyttes til astma- og allergisykdom.
Beskrives som ‘ung og lovende’
Må ha vist en ‘Særskilt innsats innen feltet’

Frist for innsending av forslag på kandidater: 15. mai 2018

Forslag på kandidater sendes til forskningsfondet@naaf.no

MED Postdoc Training Program

This autumn, the Faculty of Medicine will launch a new training program designed specifically for postdocs working at The Medical Faculty, UiB and Haukeland University Hospital.

This program is open to postdocs at all career stages who are interested in developing their academic career. The program will run from September 2018 to June 2019 and comprises a portfolio of tailored workshops and development opportunities covering topics including: Academic research in national and EU contexts; How to supervise students; How to make a successful funding application and How to develop a competitive academic CV. A full program of activities will be available during May 2018, a preliminary program is available on the webpage now. The course consists of 6 gatherings including a two-day seminar at Bjørnefjorden in November.

Participating in the MED Postdoc Program will provide you with skills and knowledge to develop a successful academic career as well as the opportunity to connect with other scientists from institutes and departments across the Faculty of Medicine.

The deadline for applications is June 4. All applicants commit to attending all activities throughout the period. It is therefore a condition of application that your contract extends to June 2019. The maximum number of participants is 30.

Participant certificates will be issued after completion of the program.

See: https://www.uib.no/en/med/117696/med-postdoc-training-program

Nutrition seminar series

The Centre for Nutrition at UiB invites to a new seminar in the series of lectures on nutrition presented by researchers from home and abroad. The series addresses key challenges in nutrition and health.

Time: Wednesday May 30^th at 14:30-15:30
Venue: Auditorium 4, BB Building, Jonas Lies vei

Program:
“The protein source determines the potential of high protein diets to attenuate and reverse obesity development in mice.”

Lise Madsen, Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway, and Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Moderator: Jutta Dierkes

There will be light refreshments.
Welcome!

Innovative graduate school for cancer research in Berlin – application for PhD and MD positions

Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO) – Applications for PhD and MD positions currently accepted until June 19, 2018

The BSIO offers a structured 3-year doctoral program jointly educating natural scientists and physicians/medical students in the field of integrative oncology and features excellent research conditions, a comprehensive curriculum and a broad supervision and mentoring network. With respect to its scientific scope, the BSIO aims to bring our understanding of malignant growth to new conceptual levels, i.e. to expand the molecular, cell biological, organismic and system-mathematical research focus by utilizing advanced experimental and simulatory models to develop novel diagnostics and innovative therapeutic principles, and to make them rapidly available for clinical testing.

Please refer to https://www.bsio-cancerschool.de/ for all regulations and application details and for more information on the graduate school.

How to apply: Application only is possible via the BSIO online application portal. It is open until June 19.

COST: New research networks in medical and health research

COST is a European network organization with most European countries as members (including Norway and all EU countries). COST aims to support European research collaboration via facilitating scientific networks, so-called COST actions. More information about COST can be found on their webpage http://www.cost.eu/.

New COST networks have been launched and in this table you can find those relevant for medical and health research. If you need further information or are interesting in joining one of the networks, please contact Amra.

OBS OBS! Retur av smitte-frakker!! (norwegian only)

Teamet som rengjør i garderobene i 1 etg. melder om at ansatte kaster smitte-frakker i retur sekkene for håndklær (blanke sekker) som skal i retur til vaskeriet. Dette er feil.

Smitte frakker skal i vannoppløselig sekk og deretter i tøy-sekk.

De skal merkes med navn på lab og dato for deretter å settes på avfallsrommet eller tøylageret i 1. etg. Vannoppløselige sekker finnes på alle avfallsrom i LB.

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 5 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 Hege F. Berg. Continue reading →

Deadlines

Dear all,

Please see below the updated links for external funding:

External funding opportunities: http://www.uib.no/en/med/112772/external-funding-opportunities

Funding opportunities for education: http://www.uib.no/med/113987/funding-opportunities-education

The webpages are updated every second week. New calls are marked as NEW.

Kind regards,

Amra, Ramune and Kaia

PhD comics

This week’s editorial

Since being asked by Pål to fulfil the position of vice-head for innovation for K2, I have been wondering exactly what it is I should do? And indeed, what is the relevance of “innovation” to our research programs? These might seem very obvious questions with obvious answers, but apart from filling in the sections asking for innovative potential on our grant applications, how many of us truly pay any serious attention to the true innovation of what we do? How important is all this “innovation stuff?”

If I google “innovation”, the first hit I get is a dictionary definition:

Innovation
ɪnəˈveɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
noun: innovation

the action or process of innovating.

However, most critically is the example of its use;
“innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organization”.

All research groups have their research questions they want to get funded and want to explore, but maybe fail to realize the innovative potential of their scientific endeavors. However, truly wanting to make meaning from research is the first step towards innovation. When you decide upon the type of meaning you make, try to find 2 or 3 words that describe why that meaning (innovation) should exist. Do your processes, methodologies or philosophies follow a well-worn path, or are they paradigm shifting? Great innovation and research jumps the curve, thereby creating progress. It certainly requires rolling of the dice, but no risk, no reward. You may not achieve perfection, but jumping the curve in research and creating revolutionary innovation will always result in some bugs. It is safe to continue in current practices, to tick the boxes, dot the i´s and cross the t´s on our research applications. However, not only is there very little fun in that, but more and more you will not be rewarded for it.

Recently, in collaboration with BTO we highlighted the various different funding avenues for innovation. However, even charitable organisations in their application processes are asking “is there any innovative potential?”. Furthermore, with reduced basic funding to university (grunnbevilgningen) from the government in recent years, there is an increased focus on funding our research activities from external sources of finance, particularly BOA (bidrag og oppdragsaktivitet) funding, which demands innovative potential. At the start of the piece I asked the question “how important is innovation”, the answer is clear, its critical. Critical to development of your research, the training of young investigators and their futures, and to the continuing success of K2.

Ønsker prosjektskisser til nye tverrfaglige PhD-stillinger (norwegian only)

Universitetet ønsker prosjektskisser for to stipendiatstillinger innen det strategiske satsningsområdet Globale samfunnsutfordringer.

Tema for satsningen er «migrasjon, helse og ulikhet». Det er sendt henvendelse til alle fagmiljø ved UiB med henstilling om å levere tverrfaglige prosjektskisser på disse temaene innen 15. juni.

Vi ønsker prosjektforslag fra potensielle hovedveiledere for kandidatene og håper på mange spennende forslag til tverrfaglige vinklinger og tematikker med vid faglig bredde, sier professor Bente Moen, leder ved Senter for internasjonal helse, som har ansvar for satsingen.

Format for prosjektskisse:

Prosjektene skal være tverrfakultære, og biveileder skal være ansatt ved annet fakultet enn hovedveileder.
Prosjektforslaget skal være på maksimum tre A4-sider og beskrive et tverrfaglig samarbeidsprosjekt der fagmiljø fra minst to fakultet deltar.
Prosjektet må vise nye og innovative vinklinger og perspektiv på de samfunnsutfordringene verden nå står overfor.
Det faglige samarbeidet må komme tydelig frem i prosjektforslaget, og det må også komme frem i hvilken grad stipendiaten knyttes opp mot eksisterende miljø og pågående forskingsprosjekt.
Det skal klart beskrives hva kandidaten skal gjøre i prosjektet og hvordan de forskjellige fagmiljøene skal bidra. Bruk av eventuell infrastruktur skal også beskrives.
Hoved- og biveileders CV med kandidatproduksjon skal legges ved prosjektforslaget.

Prosjektene vil bli vurdert av den strategiske arbeidsgruppen for globale samfunnsutfordringer, og de to prosjektene som blir vurdert som de beste vil bli tildelt stillingene. Alle fakultetene er representert i den strategiske arbeidsgruppen. Videre utlysning og ansettelsesprosess blir som for andre stipendiatstillinger ved de fakultet/institutt som tildeles stillingene.

Frist for å sende prosjektforslag er 15. juni 2018. Oppstart av stipendiatperioden vil være 1. januar 2019.

Prosjektforslag sendes til leder for satsningen, prodekan Marit Bakke, Det medisinske fakultet eller til leder ved Senter for internasjonal helse, Professor Bente Moen.

Application writing workshop for Marie Curie Individual Fellowships program

Dear researchers,

Section for Research and Innovation at Helse Bergen organises a two-day application writing workshop for potential applicants to Marie Curie Individual Fellowships program (MSCA IF).

MSCA IF is a great opportunity to employ a foreign postdoctoral fellow in your research group for up to 2 years. More information is in the one-pager enclosed. If you are interested in becoming a supervisor, you can send the one-pager to your international collaborators in order to find a relevant candidate.

The workshop’s aim is to train fellowship candidates to successfully apply for MSCA-IF with Helse Bergen as the host institution. During this visit, candidates will get advice on how to write a good application, get to know their potential host research group and start forming the project proposal together with their supervisor. The workshop is free for participants, and Helse Bergen will cover stay and travel expenses for the fellowship candidates.

Date: 12-13 June 2018, 8:00-16:00
Place: Finstue, Bikuben, Haukeland University Hospital
Registration deadline: 1st of June 2018. To register, please follow this link.

Workshop agenda can be found here.

For any questions please contact Lilit Mailyan.

Staff mobility week i Bergen 4-8 juni: Støtte til utreisende forskermobilitet (norwegian only)

Internasjonalt senter inviterer til seminar i forbindelse med Staff Mobility Week.
Tema omhandler administrativ støtte til utreisende forskere.
Program for uken: https://www.uib.no/en/smw/113462/services-outbound-researchers

Målgruppen er HR medarbeidere, forskningskoordinater, eller andre som møter og bistår utreisende forskere. Det er mulighet å være med på deler av programmet eller hele uken. Deltagelse er gratis.

Sted: Sydneshaugen
Tid: 4-8 juni

Seminaret vil bli på engelsk.

Les mer om SMW 2018 her: https://www.uib.no/en/smw

Dersom du er interessert i å delta på dette, send påmelding til Jill A. Opsahl.

Deadlines

Dear all,

Please see below the updated links for external funding:

External funding opportunities: http://www.uib.no/en/med/112772/external-funding-opportunities

Funding opportunities for education: http://www.uib.no/med/113987/funding-opportunities-education

The webpages are updated every second week. New calls are marked as NEW.

Kind regards,

Amra, Ramune and Kaia

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 Hege F. Berg.

Continue reading →

PhD Comics

Into the K2 future

Picture is showing Pål Njølstad, Stefan Johansson, Victor Norman og Janne Molnes

Every other month, the K2 management organizes a lunch for those with a permanent academic position. The purpose of this is partly to have a meeting place for those the permanent academic employees and partly that the management can inform about relevant issues and not least to get important feedback on these issues.

For the Faculty Lunch on May 9th we were joined by Victor Norman, Heidi Annette Espedal, and Per Bakke. None of them needs an introduction, but it is not certain that everyone knows that Victor Norman is the Head of the Faculty Board. The reason for the visit was Victor Norman’s wish to meet the departments at our faculty. He turned out to be very curious and asked a number of good questions during the tour and the lunch. As many of you know, one of my mottoes for active learning and research is: What’s your question? Hence, Victor Norman passed the test and is offered to be Professor Emeritus at K2!

An important topic of discussion was the organization of the institute. Victor Norman praised K2 for a brave and foresighted organization across different research fields, and his experience is that the option, a traditional division into specialties, easily leads to turmoil and internal conflicts. However, the challenge with our current organization is lack of a structure with clear command lines, responsibility, and authority for those who manage the teaching. The management will therefore organize a committee that should make a proposal for an adjustment and supplementation of the current structure at K2. The challenge is how the teaching can be organized better, and at the same time be integrated with the current research groups.

Another topic of discussion was the management’s proposal of a process for what and who K2 should select for the next 10 years to build powerful environments with future-oriented research, teaching and innovation. For one thing is certain, if we are to succeed in this, we need to secure more external funding. Using all the good and wise heads of K2 in such a process is important. One element to consider, is the tenure track system. Tenure track is a type of position that is common in the United States. Newly employed academics will not be permanently employed, but will be on a trial period for 5-7 years. If this falls positively, the person will receive a professorship. If not, the position will re-advertised. The university has “innstegstillinger” similar to this and which we intend to use as a starting point.

In order to take advantage of the good resources we have at K2, the research groups are hereby challenged to come up with suggestions on a thematic area they consider important for future-oriented research and how this can be linked to teaching and innotion. The suggestions should contain preferably one person they think is relevant to a tenure track position. The proposal must be justified and must be on a maximum of one page. The deadline for proposals is 1^st June and should be sent to Silke Appel (silke.appe@uib.no).

Best regards,

Pål

REMEBER!! IMPORTANT!!! Holidayinformation 2018

It’s time to start planning your leftover holidays.
The Faculty of Medicine has set the following deadlines for application for holidays for 2018:

Holiday	Deadline for request	Fixed holiday
Winter Holiday	01.02.2018	15.02.2018
Easter Holiday	01.03.2018	15.03.2018
Summer holiday (at least 3 weeks between (15.05-15.09)	01.04.2018	15.04.2018
Autumn Holiday	018	01.09.2018
Any leftover Holidays	01.10.2018	15.10.2018

Application for leftover holidays should be sent in PAGA no later than 01.10.2018.

Information about holidays and how to register holidays can be found here:
http://pagaweb.b.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 Phone: 55972954

Breakfast seminar may 31st

Read more here (only in norwegian)

“The 20th Broegelmann Lecture”

Read more here

”Teaching isn’t just what I do; it’s who I am”

”Teaching isn’t just what I do; it’s who I am” This was the final slide of the lecture by Ragnhild Sagvoll, UiT regarding documentation of educational competence during the K1-K2 education seminar this week. Is your teaching role so internalized that this fits you?

Those of us who participated were at least properly inspired:

-Each participant presented a recent teaching contribution he/she was proud of (albeit, in line with Norwegian modesty, only in confidence to the nearest seminar participant and not publicly in the auditorium).

-Theory regarding Team Based Learning was presented and good practice examples from teaching in neonatal and pulmonary medicine demonstrated (including use of Socrativ).

-What is pedagogical competence? This was discussed in plenary and specific advice on how to start documenting this using teaching portfolio was given.

The aim of the teaching portfolio is two-fold: documentation of own teaching competence, useful when applying for/promotion in an academic position and in wage negotiations, but also formative: to reflect on my own teaching; What is my teaching philosophy, how have I planned and implemented my teaching, which pedagogical methods have been used and which evaluation have I received. How has my professional development been. What have I achieved (well deserved self-praise) but preferably also include possible obstacles or difficulties regarding teaching development.

How do you start to build a teaching portfolio? Create a folder on your computer where you enter (short, key words) what you do of teaching, both practical (bed-side, possibly bench-side for those with lab work!), group activities, lectures, examination work but also participation in faculty development and any feedback on your teaching. Perhaps after half a year try to reflect on what you have done and if there may be reasons for implementing changes.

As another inspiration: K2’s educational prize for 2017 was awarded Ketil Grong for his important effort to introduce OSCE (objective structured clinical examination). This is a radical change in our exam form for testing of clinical skills. He took on this task, started out using his esteemed professional medical competence as well as military experience and have maneuvered steady so we have actually changed course and now steer towards the desired goal; to use an evidence-based exam form to evaluate our students. Thank you for your efforts and congratulations Ketil!

Breakfast meeting for “Alrek Helseklynge”

Tuesday 8 May at. 08:00 – 09:30 in Christie café

Read more here

Deadlines

Dear all,

Please see below the updated links for external funding:
External funding opportunities: http://www.uib.no/en/med/112772/external-funding-opportunities
Funding opportunities for education: http://www.uib.no/med/113987/funding-opportunities-education

The webpages are updated every second week. New calls are marked as NEW.

Kind regards,
Amra, Ramune and Kaia

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 23 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 Hege F. Berg.

Continue reading →