Monthly Archives: October 2018

Excellence in Research

How to create excellent research was the main theme of this year’s autumn meeting for the K.G. Jebsen centers. Some of the country’s most successful researchers shared their experiences. It was pointed out that success (not unexpectedly) is the result of hard work, but all emphasized two important elements to become a leader in research: research stay abroad and networking.

A stay abroad gives the opportunity to learn new techniques and work with ambitious colleagues who are more skilled than you. At the same time, a stay abroad is an excellent opportunity to create your own network. The practical difficulties of going abroad, perhaps with a partner and children, was highlighted. However, a shorter stay is better than no stay. UiB pursues a conscious policy in this area, for example, by postdoctoral fellows receiving an additional year if they go abroad, sabbaticals, and channels to apply for additional funding.

Success is infectious. If one of the PhD students in the lab manages to publish a paper in Nature or a corresponding journal, chances are bigger that you will be able to do the same. If your labfriend gets an ERC-Starting Grant, chances are that you can be equally successful. Harald Stenmark at the Institute of Cancer Research at UiO is one of three Norwegians to receive two ERC-Advanced Grants. He talked about the positive cycle of research. Project funds provide the opportunity to invest in equipment, personnel and money to do studies. This gives (hopefully) good results and publications, which can be used to apply for more funding for more equipment, people and studies. Ole Andreassen, who heads Norment, one of the Centers of Excellence (along with, among others, Vidar Steen and Stephanie Le Hellard at K2) highlighted the enormous importance of international networks to map the genetic mechanisms of psychiatric diseases.

The start is often the most difficult part and the institution should play an major role facilitator. K2 is doing quite well in this regard and we have many excellent examples to follow. I am confident that we can create more excellent research in the future. The next chance to excell is to obtain a new Center of Excellence. The Medical Faculty wants drafts of new centres by 1 December. More information will follow in K2-news.

Eystein Husebye
Acting Head of Department

(Norwegian) Registrering av restferie

Vi viser til frist for registrering av restferie og eventuell søknad om overføring av restferie som var satt til 1. oktober. Instituttet vil nå starte med å registrere restferie som avviklet for alle ansatte som ikke selv har registrert ferie / søkt om overføring.

Hva innebærer dette?

Dersom du ikke selv har oppdatert ditt fearieregnskap slik at det nå står i null vil instituttet legge inn restferie som avviklet i HR-portalen. Dersom registreringen gjort av instituttet ikke stemmer med den ferieavviklingen du har hatt / ønsker kan du selv gå inn i HR-portalen og korrigere dette. Korrigering av registrert ferie må gjøres innen 31.12.18. Etter denne datoen blir ferieregnskapet for 2018 låst.

Registrering/korrigering av ferie, og søknad om eventuell overføring av ferie gjøres i ferieskjema i HR-Portalen.

Utfyllende informasjon og hvordan man registrerer, endrer og søker om eventuell overføring av ferie kan en finne her.

Har du noen spørsmål om ferie eller registrering ta kontakt med personalkonsulent:

Elin Myhrvold- Email: elin.myhrvold@uib.no Telefon: 55972954

Public PhD defense, week 44

Eirik Wilberg Rebnord will defend his PhD thesis on Friday, November 8th, 2018

Trial lecture: Friday, November 8th, 2018 at 09:15 AM
Topic:  “Mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases in obesity”
Place:  Aud. Armauer Hansens Hus, Haukelandsveien 28

Public defense: Friday, November 8th, 2018 at 11:15 AM
Place:  Aud. Armauer Hansens Hus, Haukelandsveien 28
Title of dissertation:  “Biomarkers of metabolism and inflammation as predictors of coronary events and type 2 diabetes in patients with stable coronary artery disease”

1st opponent: Professor John-Bjarne Hansen, University of Tromsø
2nd opponent: Professor Ingebjørg Seljeflot, University of Oslo
3rd member of the comittee: Ass. prof. Mai Tone Lønnebakken, University of Bergen

The defense will be led by prof. Alfred Halstensen

Press release (in Norwegian)

(Norwegian) Velkommen til frokostseminar 8. november

Det gode arbeidsmiljø

Arbeidsliv i endring – hva med arbeidsmiljøet?
Frokostseminar 8. november

Fleksibel – kompetent – trygg
Hvordan tar vi vare på arbeidsmiljøet i et mer effektivt, fleksibelt og digitalt arbeidsliv? Et godt arbeidsmiljø kjennetegnes av god ledelse, medvirkning fra ansatte og tydelige organisatoriske rammer. Kompetanse, mestring og anerkjennelse gir både trygghet og trivsel.

Vernetjenesten ved UiB ønsker å skape en arena ved UiB der vi kan ta opp betydningen av arbeidsmiljø. Vi vil invitere til frokostseminarer for å snakke om arbeidsliv og arbeidsmiljø under endring og omstilling. Målgruppen er alle ansatte og ledere. Samlingene vil bli holdt ulike steder på campus.

Det andre frokostseminaret arrangeres torsdag 8. november kl. 0830-1000 i Jusbygget, Auditorium 3. Dørene åpner kl. 0800 med enkel servering fra kl. 0815.

Vi retter denne gangen oppmerksomheten mot betydningen av en god HMS-kultur.

Møteledere: Jo Høyer, hovedverneombud ved Universitetsmuseet og seniorrådgiver Henrik Tøndel, HR-avdelingen

Program
0830 Velkommen, v/ Jo Høyer og Henrik Tøndel
0840 Strategi 2030 i et HMS-perspektiv, v/ Tore Tungodden, ass. universitetsdirektør
0900 Tillit og kommunikasjon, v/ Else Jerdal, universitetets hovedverneombud
0910 HMS-kultur – ledelse og medvirkning, innledning v/ Roar Nese, Seksjon for HMS, beredskap og BHT
0935 Dialog og diskusjon

Påmelding innen 31. oktober her.

Velkommen!

Reminder: Introduction course on mainstreaming of gender perspectives in medical research

SKOK offers a three-hour course on gender perspectives in research. The course invites reflection on how analytical gender perspectives can be integrated into both on-going medical research and in future project development.

The inclusion of gender perspectives is gaining increasing importance in the evaluation of research quality – both with regards to project applications and the research itself. For example, both the Research Council of Norway and the European Union aim for projects to not only have gender balance, but also for gender perspectives to be an integral part of their research questions, methodology and analysis. Analytical and multidisciplinary approaches to gender can therefore contribute to strengthen project applications and provide new perspectives that enhance the quality of the research.

This course gives an introduction to the gender politics of external funding agencies, and to how gender perspectives can be integrated into ongoing research and future project applications.  The course emphasises in particular examples from medical research.

Time and venue: 6 November 10.00 – 13.00, board room (styrerommet), 4th floor, Armauer Hansens hus

Registration deadline: 2 November, send your registration to Amra.  

Seminar content:

1.      Welcome and presentations of participants

2.      Get an overview over EU and NFR policy on the integration of gender perspectives  and gender equality in research.

3.      Gain insights on different meanings of gender, and on central concepts. 

4.      Reflect  on your own understandings of gender, and how it is reflected in your research projects.

11.30 – 12.00 Lunch

5.      Gender balance in methodology and knowledge production.

6.      Familiarize with examples of how gender mainstreaming in different areas of research has led to research innovation.

7.      Acquire methodological and analytical tools that can be used to integrate gender perspectives in research.

8.      Summary: why and how to address the requirements for gender balance and gender perspectives in research projects.

BASIC FIRST AID COURSE 5 NOVEMBER

INTENSION: The participants shall be able to examine a person regarding respiration and circulation, and take action accordingly

TARGET GROUPE: Foreign employees at The University of Bergen

CONTENT:
– Scene assessment, safety
– Emergency services
– Basic assessment and actions sick/injured person
– Free airways
– Unconscious person, recovery position
– CPR
– Bleeding, internal, external
– Foreign body airway obstruction

DATE: Monday 5 November 2018

TIME: From 1230 – until 1530

LOCATION: Museplassen 1 – lower ground floor – Entrance from Prof. Keysersgt.

NUMBER: Max. 20 participants

COURSE PROVIDER: Rescue Partner

REGISTRATION: heidi.fretheim@uib.no

 

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 7 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

OWLS and other “creatures”

Our department contributes a lot within education; Mostly for medicine but also significant contributions of teaching in studies of pharmacy, nutrition, dentistry and also non-medical subjects at the other faculties.

It is difficult to have a proper overview regarding who is responsible for what related to teaching within our departmental structure based mainly on research groups, not the traditional medical specialities/subjects.

The head of our department has therefore set up a working group in which we will try to find a sensible structure to secure a good overview of who is responsible for what regarding our educational responsibilities. Who holds the overview of which teaching resources are available? When a teacher becomes ill; where are persons with the right skills to step in? And when applying for a leave of absence: who should be consulted to know whether the educational responsibilities might be undertaken by other?

IGS (Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care) has an administrative structure of their education recourses in parallel with their research-group structure, where they have teaching/educational group leaders named UGLE (English: OWL) that should hold this overview regarding teaching resources (teachers!) and their responsibility to undertake defined teaching tasks. We are now working to develop our teaching structure and perhaps define corresponding OWL territories within K2. Each OWL-nest will probably be connected to a research groups, but some of the OWL-nestlings will have to fly a little outside their local territories to perform their teaching associated with other subject areas.

Each OWL must keep an overview of their respective OWL-chicks while the HEAD of OWLS  (Teaching Director of K2 = signed) supervises the OWLS’ management of their territories.

We need to map K2s total educational contributions to know what is affiliated with each of our research group today (the “terrain”) and how our education map should be made to fit properly in the future!

If you have opinions regarding this process, we are very interested in input; which teaching resources belong together in one “nest”? How to ensure good coverage of all education within our responsibility? Please give feedback to the K2 teaching director!

The department management is really trying to secure teaching resources when announcing vacancies! But we need to know what the former position has contained regarding teaching, and who may this teaching be transferred to if other teaching is to be secured by affiliating this position to another subject/field.

(Norwegian) Kjære kolleger ved Det medisinske fakultet

Ved Institutt for global helse og samfunnsmedisin (IGS) arrangerer vi mandag 29. oktober kl 10.30-12 et seminar i kantinen i IGS sine lokaler i Kalfarveien 31.

Programmet har interesse for alle som lurer på sannsynligheten for at gullet kommer hem i år, samt alle som interesserer seg for prioriteringer knyttet til helse.

Vi ønsker alle ved Det medisinske fakultet velkommen til å delta. Jeg håper derfor dere vil spre informasjon om dette til flest mulig.

Nyttig bakgrunnslesning finnes her.

Program
Kl 10.30 Velkommen – Guri Rørtveit, instituttleder IGS

Kl 10.35 Om statistikk i praktisk bruk når gullet ska hem – statistiker Øystein A. Haaland, IGS

Kl 10.50 Om prioritering mellom folkehelsetiltak – professor Ole Frithjof Norheim, IGS

Kl 11.10 Om prioritering i kommunehelsetjenesten og utfordringer i Blankholmutvalget – professor i helseøkonomi ved NTNU, Jon Magnussen

Kl 12.00 Avslutning

Om Jon Magnussen:
Professor i helseøkonomi, og prodekan ved Fakultet for Medisin og Helsevitenskap, NTNU. Han ledet i 2015 arbeidsgruppen som utredet hvordan alvorlighet kunne brukes i prioriteringsbeslutninger og sitter som medlem i Blankholmutvalget som skal foreslå prinsipper for prioritering i de kommunale helse- og omsorgstjenestene. Han er også programstyreleder for HELSEVEL i Forskningsrådet.

 

Introduction course on mainstreaming of gender perspectives in medical research

SKOK offers a three-hour course on gender perspectives in research. The course invites reflection on how analytical gender perspectives can be integrated into both on-going medical research and in future project development.

The inclusion of gender perspectives is gaining increasing importance in the evaluation of research quality – both with regards to project applications and the research itself. For example, both the Research Council of Norway and the European Union aim for projects to not only have gender balance, but also for gender perspectives to be an integral part of their research questions, methodology and analysis. Analytical and multidisciplinary approaches to gender can therefore contribute to strengthen project applications and provide new perspectives that enhance the quality of the research.

This course gives an introduction to the gender politics of external funding agencies, and to how gender perspectives can be integrated into ongoing research and future project applications.  The course emphasises in particular examples from medical research.

Time and venue: 6 November 10.00 – 13.00, board room (styrerommet), 4th floor, Armauer Hansens hus

Registration deadline: 2 November, send your registration to Amra.  

Seminar content:

1.      Welcome and presentations of participants

2.      Get an overview over EU and NFR policy on the integration of gender perspectives  and gender equality in research.

3.      Gain insights on different meanings of gender, and on central concepts. 

4.      Reflect  on your own understandings of gender, and how it is reflected in your research projects.

11.30 – 12.00 Lunch

5.      Gender balance in methodology and knowledge production.

6.      Familiarize with examples of how gender mainstreaming in different areas of research has led to research innovation.

7.      Acquire methodological and analytical tools that can be used to integrate gender perspectives in research.

8.      Summary: why and how to address the requirements for gender balance and gender perspectives in research projects.

Welcome to library courses in English!

The library offers several courses in English in November and December. The courses are mainly for staff and PhD students. Other students are offered courses within their schedule.

The courses are free of charge, but please register for the courses.

  • Introduction to systematic reviews, 28 November
    The course gives an overview about the process of working with a systematic review, with tips about relevant databases and other tools. It also describes the role of the library in this process
  • Introduction to EndNote, 5 December
    EndNote is a tool for managing references. The course covers import of references from a database, editing and organizing of references and using EndNote in writing. EndNote is also a valuable tool for managing data in a systematic review.
  • Literature searching in PubMed and Embase, 12 December
    PubMed and Embase are major biomedical article databases with an overlap in content of about 30-40%. The main topics of the course are searching with text words and subject headings, and various functionality for limiting search results.

You may find more details and registration forms on our web page.

 

(Norwegian) Masteroppgave for ernæringsstudenter

I forbindelse med at studentene på masterprogrammene i klinisk og human ernæring skal skrive en masteroppgave, etterlyser Programutvalget for ernæring nye masteroppgaver i ernæring. Masteroppgaven skal gi 60 studiepoeng og er beregnet til to semester fulltidsstudium. Studentene velger oppgave innen april 2019, og arbeidet med oppgaven blir høsten 19 – våren 20. Studentene skal få oppnevnt maks to veiledere i forbindelse med arbeidet med masteroppgaven. Enten hoved- eller biveileder må være tilsatt ved Universitetet i Bergen.

Programutvalget ber om en kort beskrivelse (max 1 side) av forskergruppe og aktuell(e) masteroppgave(r) innen 2. november.

Ta gjerne kontakt med Guro.Akre@uib.no for spørsmål eller for å få tilsendt prosjektmal.

Oppgavene vil bli presentert for studentene på et møte i desember. De som har sendt inn oppgaver tidligere år, men fortsatt ønsker studenter i tilknytning til prosjektet, bes sende inn oppgavene på nytt.

Programutvalget nedsetter en komite som skal godkjenne alle tema før de presenteres for studentene. Dersom oppgaven er av klinisk karakter bør det være en kliniker som veileder. Det tillates normalt maks to studenter tilknyttet et prosjekt.

Emnebeskrivelsen for masteroppgaven i de to masterprogrammene finnes her:

http://www.uib.no/emne/NUHUM395

http://www.uib.no/emne/NUCLI395

Pasteurlegatet

Pasteurlegatet shall award a grant on the 27th of December this year to Norwegian scientist who intends to study a topic regarding infectious agents, chemistry or fermentation industry.

The allocation is preferably given to young, active and promising researchers, under the doctoral level. Emphasis is placed on documentation of preliminary results and evaluations of their efforts. Priority is given to specific operational and equipment-related needs, rather than traveling, accommodation, general financial support and publication expenses.

It is given rather not support more than twice to the same person. On both counts it is however the possibility of exceptions in special cases.

Applications must include curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages) and a short project description (up to 3 pages).

Any award will ordinarily not exceed kr. 15.000,-.

Applications should be submitted by December 1, 2018 to Pasteurlegatet’s secretary Mari Støen, Department of Microbiology, University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital to email.

See also Pasteurlegatet’s website (Norwegian only).

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 8 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

The good conversation

All employees at K2 shall have the opportunity to conduct a so-called employee interview with their leader once a year. The UiB policy is that the employee interview is a part of targeted management and employee development. The talks should be annual, systematic, reciprocally prepared and linked to the strategic plans of the institute, faculty and university. It is recommended to use the UiB’s employee interview form to systematize the conversation.

At K2 the employee talks are organized so that I, as acting head of department, offer group leaders employee interviews. A time schedule will be sent out in order for you to book a time. Group leaders will provide their group members, both academic, technical and  administrative staff, the same. Implementation will be checked by K2’s administration and the central administration at UiB will also log our performance in this area. Employee interview forms can be retrieved from this link.

Good luck,

Eystein Husebye
Acting Head of Department

HSE-corner: Safety inspection rounds 2018.

Preparations for this year’s safety inspection rounds are underway! The safety representatives and head of administration will go through the physical work environment at BUS, Kvinneklinikken and Laboratoriebygget on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th of November.

We kindly ask everyone to fill out and send in the forms to Julie (select the form that fits you). Deadline for sending in the forms is Friday 26th October. Please get in touch if you have any questions. More information on the HSE round here.

Forms (Norwegian only):

Kontor: http://intern.filer.uib.no/poa/Hms/HMS-kartlegging/Sjekkliste HMS-runde kontor.xlsx

Lab: http://intern.filer.uib.no/poa/Hms/HMS-kartlegging/Sjekkliste HMS-runde lab%2c klinikk%2c verksted.xlsx

Møterom: http://intern.filer.uib.no/poa/Hms/HMS-kartlegging/Sjekkliste HMS-runde personal-%2cmote-%2cgrupperom.xlsx

 

Reminder: Invitation to a single cell seminar with Genomics

Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen and 10x Genomics welcomes researchers with an interest in single cell sequencing. Single cell sequencing has revolutionized life science research leading to a deeper understanding of biological processes in health and disease. Rapid technology advances are enabling large-scale projects for resolving single cell populations from 100s to millions of cells in a given study.

AGENDA

  • Welcome and introduction
  • Single Cell Applications: 3′ Digital Gene Expression and 5′ Digital Gene Expression with combined VDJ analysis and the newly launched CNV solution – 10x Genomics
  • New product launches: ATAC Seq, feature barcoding. – 10x Genomics
  • Summary and discussion – All

Date: October 16th
Time: 13 – 15
Place: Seminar room 5.1/5.2, Laboratory building 5th floor, Haukeland

More information about the seminar here.

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.

Continue reading

What does the new data privacy regulation mean for research?

After the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force July 20, 2018, there are some changes on how data on patients’ health have to be treated. It is not enough to just have ethical approval! It is of course still a prerequisite to get REK approal before you start your project. New is that REK approval does not include the permission to handle personal data. In addition, it is required that you are allowed to personal data according to article 6 and article 9 of the personal data protection law. So you still need to get ethical approval prior to starting your research project, but the institution has the additional responsibility that handling of personal data occurs in accordance to the new regulation.

That means that the foundation to get access to personal data has to be evaluated by the project leader, and has to be included in the ethical approval. This foundation is either consent or dispensation of this consent requirement according to the health research laws. The project leader has to show that the treatment of personal data follow the general principles of the personal data protection regulation, for example definition of aims, minimizing the amount of data, limitation of storage and responsibility.

More internal control responsibility is given. We have to assure that treatment of the personal data is according to the regulations, and perform Data Protection Impact Assessments – DPIA when required.

This means that the responsibilities have in collaboration projects have to be well defined and agreed upon, which is of importance when you want to share patient data with your collaborators, and make written agreements. This is not a new requirement, but of more importance now with the new GDPR.

Both the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital have a Personal Data and Privacy commissioner – Janecke Veim and Christer Kleppe. If you are in doubt if you need an agreement with the hospital, contact Janecke or/and Christer (janecke.veim@uib.no, personvernombudet@helse-bergen.no).