Monthly Archives: June 2018

HAPPY SUMMER!

Today, we will submit the budget proposal for 2019. It is an ambitious budget that addresses the challenges we face in the coming year in terms of education and research. The finance section deserves a big thank you for solid work with the budget.

As discussed at the Faculty Lunch and announced in previous K2 News, we would like to look at the opportunity to organize teaching at K2 in a different way to achieve better command lines, responsibility, and authority for those who need it. This is in line with the evaluation of the Future Faculty. We have organized a committee consisting of Jone Trovik, Julie Stavnes, Tore Lillebø, Svein Håvik, Gottfried Greve, and Kristin Greve Isdahl. They will explore various possibilities for how the teaching can be organized so that it can be integrated with the research groups that we still need to retain as the main structure of the institute. The results of the investigation are expected during the autumn.

Furthermore, we have invited the academic communities to come up with proposals for thematic areas they consider important for future-oriented research, and how this can be linked to education and innovation, and preferably people they consider relevant to an tenure track position. There were five proposals: Medical bioinformatics, endocrinology and biorythms, rheumatology, influenza, and galenic pharmacy. In the budget process, we are now working to find room for 1-2 positions within some of these fields.

At the time of writing, I am on my way to an interview at the US Embassy in Oslo. Before I applied for the position as Head of K2, I already had approved a research term in Boston at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. With the new position and new assignments, I have chosen to postpone the stay to September 20th, so we can get a good start for K2 after the summer vacation. Furthermore, the time is cut down to six months. A plan has been put in place to take care of my functions. Most importantly, Eystein Husebye is willing to be Acting Head of Department (thank you very much, Eystein!). This is a position he has had several times before, and I’m sure he will take care of the function in an excellent way.

We have had an amazing spring with better weather than several summers combined. People from Bergen are good at taking the opportunity to enjoy good weather when it suddenly appears, and one may wonder whether we really need summer vacation after this spring. However, for most people, it has been busy working with applications, completion of examinations and planning the first OSCE, as well as all endings at the end of a semester. So it will be good to have a few weeks off to do completely other things. It’s important to charge the batteries so we can start the fall with new energy and workload. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your great effort this half year. Have a nice summer vacation!

Prize winners from K2 at Fakultetets dag

The picture shows Mari Kyllesø Halle, Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn and Rebecca Cox

Colleagues from K2 received 4 prizes on Fakultetets dag. The department congratulates them all.

Phd-work of the year: Mari Kyllesø Halle

Best quality in study: Emmet McCormack

Prize for internationalization of studies: Gottfried Greve

Research dissemination of the year: Rebecca Cox og Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn

 

Call on antimicrobial resistance

Bergen Research Foundation has announced a call on anti-microbial resistance (AMR). You can find the call text and a sketch template on their webpage.

The programme will target the following key areas:

A – Therapeutics

B – Diagnostics

C – Surveillance

Projects may address the bacterial pathogens and the resistances identified in the Global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria published by the WHO. Multi- and extensively drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis may also be included. Other pathogens are not included.  Please read the call text for further specifications.

You can apply for projects in the range of 15-20 million NOK over a period of 4 years. Please send the pre-proposal in one PDF-file to grants@bfstiftelse.no at or before the deadline 3 September 2018.

Interested in future funding announcements from Horizon2020?

Impressed by Research Council of Norway’s previous events, Brussels has moved their next event from Central Europe to Oslo. The international network meeting, entitled “Brokerage for Health”, will focus on calls in the ongoing EU’s health program with deadlines during 2019.

The meeting offers several possibilities. Perhaps you are curious about the health program and considering applying EU calls in the future. You have maybe found a relevant call and want to collect hints and advice. Or you have decided to apply but need additional partners. You will also have the opportunity to present your project in the format of a 5-minute flash presentation (deadline to submit the flash presentation is 17 August 2018).

The event will take place 3-4 September in Oslo and the registration opens 15 June.

A hint: remember to bring business cards. If you do not have business cards, you can order them here.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Amra (Laboratory building, 8th floor).

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 4 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.

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