Monthly Archives: October 2020

This week’s editorial

With increased Covid-19 infection, we are back to recommending home office for those who may have it. Everyone else should talk to their leader about flexible working hours to avoid too many at the same time in rush hour traffic. All teaching that requires physical presence is carried out as usual, but I recommend that we switch to digital teaching wherever possible.

That brings me to side line jobs, and our duty to update them twice a year.

By side line jobs is meant job placement, job acquisition, assignments and assignments that an employee at UiB has outside his / her position at UiB, regardless of whether the work or job is paid or not. Work carried out for an enterprise or company wholly or partly owned by the employee is also regarded as a side line job.

The principles for side line jobs can be found in UiB’s Regelsamling (Norwegian only) and apply to all UiB employees, irrespective of the category of job and the number of positions. They must protect our reputation and the trust and integrity of the employees. There should be openness about side line jobs that may have an impact on the work of the university. Everyone must report on their own side assignment on their own initiative.

The following need not be registered: Membership in external review committees, referee for professional journals, assignments as external examiner, professional assignments that accompany main position or individual minor assignments in teaching or dissemination at other institutions, or unpaid appointments of limited scope for non-profit institutions.

The following must be reported: Side line jobs that may be in competition with the University’s activities, are of a long or extensive nature, and may cast doubt on the employee’s loyalty, willingness or ability to carry out his work at the University in the manner indicated by the position and the University’s purpose, and persistently use of the university’s resources and infrastructure.

Applications for side line jobs are evaluated according to the University’s principles for side line jobs, see above. Both registration of page tasks that require approval, and those that are only to be registered, are done in Pagaweb. Information about the side line jobs is stored there and will be made publicly available.

The Department Head approves or rejects applications. Rejection of an application can be appealed to the Faculty Board or the University Director. Violation of the principles of side-tasks can lead to personnel consequences under the Civil Service Act and other reactions under the rules of default in the civil service.

As Pål wrote last year, this may seem negative but side assignments are actual positive as long as it does not hamper or slow down our regular work, can damage the university’s reputation, or mix its own and the university’s resources.

Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!

Course in HSE risk assessment and Safe Job Analysis (SJA) for employees

The course will take place digitally in Zoom.

The course consists of:

Part 1 – Theory

  • What is risk assessment?
  • HSE risk assessment
  • Safe Job Analysis (SJA)
  • Tools: use of the different templates

Part 2 – Working with cases and discussion.

The participants are divided into groups (in Zoom) and will carry out an HSE risk assessment and an SJA based on a case.

We discuss the results together.

Target group: English speaking employees who carry out risk assessments and SJA related to HSE for the local work environment and work tasks.

Maximum number of participants per course: 18 participants, you will be invited to the Zoom meeting before the course starts.

Link to registration (Registration deadline 09.11.2020, at 15:00)

Course time: Monday november 16 at 09:00 – 15:00

Language: English

Norwegian: Søknadsdatabase for fond og legater

Søknadsdatabasen for fond og legater er nå åpen. I tillegg til de som er listet opp under er også følgende fond og legater ved vårt fakultet åpen for søknader:

  • Det alminnelige medisinske forskningsfond ved Universitetet i Bergen
  • Legat for forskning av kreftsykdommer ved Universitetet i Bergen
  • Dagfinn Aarskogs vitenskapelige fond til Barneklinikken, Haukeland sykehus

Se her for oversikt over aktive utlysninger (Vær oppmerksom på at utlysninger blir kunngjort fortløpende).

Se her for mer informasjon om fond og legater.

Continue reading

Norwegian: OSKE-seminar 12.11.

Som tidligere annonsert blir det OSKE-seminar i høst. MERK: datoen for seminaret er endret til torsdag 12. november.

Påmeldingsskjema: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=8990434
Seminaret blir holdt digitalt i Zoom.

Frist for påmelding er 5. november. Vi sender ut link til Zoom etter at påmeldingsfristen er ute.

Bakgrunn
Det er et stort behov for flere OSKE-oppgaver. Våren 2020 arrangerte vi derfor et arbeidsseminar for å få inn nye OSKE-oppgaver. Dette ble vellykket, og vi ser at dette er en god måte å gjøre det på videre. Hovedformålet med seminaret er å sørge for å få laget et bredt repertoar av OSKE-oppgaver. Det forventes at alle fagene på medisinstudiet er representert på seminaret. Alle kliniske fag må være representert. Vi trenger til enhver tid flere oppgaver i alle fag til både OSKE 6. semester og OSKE 12. semester.

I arbeidsseminaret i februar kom det inn flest oppgaver til MED12. I MED6 ble det ikke avholdt OSKE denne våren, men våren 2021 planlegges det MED6-OSKE både i februar og i juni. På grunn av dette er det spesielt stort behov for flere oppgaver for OSKE i MED6.

ERC reading day and writing course

Are you curious to find out what a successful ERC application looks like? You now have the opportunity to read granted ERC proposals. ERC projects are also highly relevant for FRIPRO applicants, so this reading day is relevant for those of you who plan to apply for FRIPRO in February.

ERC 2021 (tentative deadline dates):
– Starting Grant: 9 March
Consolidator Grant: 20 April
– Advanced Grant: 31 August

The reading days are open for researchers at all career stages and all research fields. Please note that this is an individual reading session only, and it does not include tutorials about the ERC. Courses on how to write an ERC Grant proposal, and other courses organized by the Research Council of Norway, are announced at the events page.

Online registration to ERC Proposal Reading Day in Bergen:
– Thursday November 19th 2020 at 09:00 to 12:00
– Thursday November 19th 2020 at 13:00 to 16:00

Please note the digital course on how to write ERC proposals arranged by UiB, again, also relevant for FRIPRO applicants. You can register for the course on the event webpage.

NorDoc Summer School 2021

The NorDoc Summer School takes place in Copenhagen on 16-20 August 2021 and this year the topic is:

Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Development 

The annual NorDoc Summer School brings together PhD students from the Nordic countries for a week of interaction and discussions. The summer School is open to PhD students, faculty and administrators.

Sign up soon! There are only 250 seats available for the conference.

See here for more information and here: Nordoc Summerschool Programme for programme for the upcoming NorDoc Summer School 2021.

Proposal to Research Council of Norway 2021

In the newsletter a couple of weeks ago we present changes in RCN’s (known as NFR) announcement for 2021. The early deadline combined with coming changes in UiB’s budgeting processes urges us to gain an overview of potential applicants as soon as possible. We fully understand that it is not easy to know if you will apply while still waiting for feedback from this years’ submission. We therefore give you an option to sign off for this. In addition, you are of course free to change your mind.

The form is very simple and we truly appreciate if you could cross of your choices in the few fields. The deadline is Monday 2 November: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=9075970

Amra

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 10 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 Oda Barth Vedøy.

Continue reading

Innovation consulting

Foto: UiB

You have probably noticed the construction at the top of the Laboratory building. The new building – whether it is called the Incubator or the Innovation Center – is UiB and MED’s most visible and concrete investment in innovation and commercialization of research results. Buildings are good, but activity is better: working with researchers who want to see their good ideas realized and making a difference. So in parallel with the physical construction we are also building a better support system with specialist competence. MED has – as the first faculty – a dedicated innovation advisor, and from 2021 we will get a second one. Together with the department Innovation leader (Emmet McCormack), we are the first helpers on the path towards sustainable company, IP license agreement or transformative social innovation.

But what does an Innovation advisor actually do? The short answer is that we try to help with whatever is needed. I have 12 years of experience from nanomaterial start-up and been through everything from EU applications (and reporting) to product development (and certification) to patent writing (and Office actions) to investor pitching (and business cases) to drafting cooperation agreements, navigating new EU directives and handling random audits from the tax authorities – but that last one I will not help you with.

Specifically I can help with focusing proposals (especially impact and exploitation), focusing and pitching business ideas, first assessment of patentability (including simple searches) and commercial potential/value proposition, submitting DOFIs, or advising on agreements (IPR, secrecy and exit clauses). I am also involved in teaching Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and am the faculty contact towards VIS (the TTO) and also a contact person towards UiB central research and innovation section (FIA) and the hospital innovation section.

Most of what I do is about evaluating ideas from more perspectives than the scientific one – most importantly user perspective and investor perspective, but also the ‘European perspective’ in Horizon Europe (launching 26.october!) and the strategic thoughts behind the increased focus on innovation/impact and cooperation in national and EU funding calls.

Do you have a good idea you want to grow to something? I’d love to talk with you about ways to make it happen.

Andreas Westermoen

Andreas.westermoen@uib.no