Monthly Archives: February 2023

(Norsk) Ukens leder

Editorial K2 nytt 240223
Pål R. Njølstad

Export control and export license – a new dimension to advertising and filling positions

Export control and sensitive knowledge transfer means that certain goods, technology and services cannot be exported from Norway without a license issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PST and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not have detailed knowledge of what is subject to a license, it is the institutions and professional communities that must assess this.

 

For our part, export control is mainly about control of knowledge transfer and research collaboration, with associated mapping of equipment and technology required to be licensed as well as awareness when exchanging students/employees, guest lecturers, data security etc.

As Head of Department, I must assess whether an export license should be applied for, based on the candidate’s nationality and whether the subject area in which the person is to work is sensitive, and may therefore be problematic in relation to the export control regulations/knowledge transfer.

An export license is mainly applied for when there are candidates who come from the countries: Iran, China, Pakistan and Russia. Applications are made regardless of whether the candidates reside in countries other than their citizenship.

HOW SHOULD WE AT K2 RELATE TO THIS?

  1. When a position is advertised

I will assess early in the recruitment process whether the position is within a sensitive subject area. When scientific positions are to be advertised, the text of the announcement to this effect must be worded if the subject area requires it:

“UiB is subject to the regulations for export control and the regulations apply when processing applications for the position”.

An export license is applied for if I consider that the subject area is sensitive, and the candidate(s) has a nationality which means that it should be applied for. An application for an export license is sent before an offer letter is sent to the candidate.

The HR employee can send out an offer letter when we have received feedback that the candidate is not subject to a license. If necessary, reservations can be included in the offer letter and/or the employment contract pending a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the application for a license.

  1. Visiting researchers

I will assess whether the subject area and the candidate’s nationality indicate that we should apply for an export license. Applications are sent well in advance of the planned stay.

HOW TO DO?
When a position is to be advertised, the person wishing to advertise the position must send information to me about the following:

  • project description
  • description of the work tasks
  • equipment/instruments the candidate must use in the work
  • what qualifications the person appointed to the position must have in order to carry out the work tasks
  • the candidate (competence, background and why the candidate is assessed as the right person)

WHAT HAPPENS THEN?
Processing of the application by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can take 3-6 months. It is therefore important that the time aspect is carefully assessed before the announcement and that, if necessary, appears from the advertisement text that the appointment of the candidate must take place soon. If so, this will be emphasized when recommending and offering the position.

This is complicated, and the most practical method has not yet been found. A representative from PST will come to our department head meeting in 1-2 weeks so that we can find out more about what an export license means and how we should proceed.

Have a great weekend!

Pål

Joint Summer School between NORBIS and CEDAS

CEDAS, the Center for Data Science at UiB (UiB.no/cedas), and NORBIS, the national research school in bioinformatics, biostatistics and systems biology (norbis.w.UiB.no), are preparing a joint summer school for starting as well as for experienced data scientists, especially for graduate (and undergraduate) students, PhD candidates, and PostDocs.  We anticipate having this 4 or 5 days summer school on selected topics in data science in (or near) Bergen, likely during August 2023.  Given the increasing relevance of data science in modern science and applications, we are excited about this upcoming summer school, the lessons to learn, and the new connections to form between the participants.

With this, we kindly ask you to participate in a short survey which helps us to better understand the topics of special interest in data science, given that you are interested in (possibly) participating in this summer school.  Also, we wish to learn about the background of the participants to inform our preparations.  Your input helps us to target the participants and their interest as well as possible. Please note that the survey is adapted to more than NORBIS members and will ask for a few more things that we normally ask you about.

Please fill in our short survey at https://forms.gle/fdnbZNe69ZnTe5se9 until March 1, 2023, at the latest – it should not take more than a few minutes, altogether.

Note that you can leave us your name and eMail address in the survey (and tell us that you’d like to stay informed) – if you do so, we will gladly keep you informed, possibly invite you to join a Discord server (given that we set one up for the summer school), etc.  Sure it’s also fine to fill in the survey anonymously – also this helps us to better understand what to prepare for!

Given your interest in data science, you’re kindly invited to join us on our Discord server for CEDAS: https://discord.gg/6SAFpRFm – also, if you were interested in receiving news from CEDAS, we can easily put your eMail-address onto our CEDAS-info eMail list (let us know).

VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry

As the European vaccine trial network VACCELERATE, coordinated at the University
Hospital of Cologne, we want to make a contribution so that people interested in clinical
research and organisers of clinical studies can find each other more quickly, e.g. on
COVID-19, polio, influenza and other respiratory infections.

If you register yourself or your minor child, we can inform you by email as soon as a
study fits your profile. Only then you will decide whether you want to contact the study
organisers and receive more information about the offered study.

More information can be found in the attached poster.

Editorial

Dear all!

This year’s first application round to NFR is in full swing, and several have already submitted an application to Researcher Projects for Scientific Renewal/Women’s Health and Collaborative Project to meet Societal and Industry-related Challenges. Our young researchers have an application deadline in a few weeks (Researcher Project for Young Talents (FRIPRO). NFR is now introducing changes that will be implemented from the FRIPRO calls for proposals published in the autumn, following a request from the Ministry of Education and Research to reduce the number of applications, limit the use of resources and increase funding to 25 per cent. In brief, it will be the following:

  • ongoing FRIPRO application processing
  • quarantine for applications awarded a mark of less than 5.5 (Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal) or 4.5 (Young Talents)
  • Once the FRIPRO application has been submitted, you as project manager will be given a 12-month waiting period before you can submit your next application.
  • you cannot be project managers for more than one FRIPRO project at a time
  • requirement of 6 years of post-doctoral experience for a Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal

 

More information can be found on NFR’s website (https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/news/2023/important-changes-in-the-research-councils-application-processing/).

Have a nice weekend!

Silke Appel

Empowering Women in Research (free webinar)

At scientifyRESEARCH, we are on a mission to empower researchers with funding information and enable the best research funding decisions. In celebration of International Women’s Day, we are hosting this webinar to discuss empowering women in research. We will talk about what we know best – research funding. Judy Mielke, Founder of scientifyRESEARCH, will share information about research funding dedicated to women.

This year, we are honored to have two guest speakers who have dedicated their time and attention to empowering women in research via Higher Education Resource Services-East Africa (HERS-EA), an educational non-profit organization incorporated in 2014 in Uganda and hosted at Makerere University Gender Mainstreaming Directorate. An affiliate of HERS Denver, Colorado, USA, HERS-EA advances women in East Africa (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) using similar strategies to those of HERS. The goal of the HERS-EA is to raise the proportion of women in leadership and management positions especially in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in East Africa to at least 50%. During this webinar, you will learn about the research driven interventions they implement

NorDoc Summer School 2023

Antibiotic resistance is an acute threat of global dimensions. In 2019, 1.3 million people are estimated to have died as a result of infections caused by resistant bacteria. Yet, no new class of antibiotics has reached healthcare in nearly four decades. Today, we have reached the point where new drugs alone are no longer sufficient and the problem is so complex that collaboration is absolutely necessary.

NorDoc Summer School 2023 will focus on how we can handle one of the greatest challenges of our time. We will meet in Uppsala and Stockholm, the intersection of Swedish life science, to learn from and about the many interdisciplinary initiatives that have their hub here, several with branches across the world. Register now.

https://www.medfarm.uu.se/admissions/research-schools/nordoc-en/

Editorial

Are you home?

Does your website show that you are an active employee, that you constantly publish ground-breaking research and that you are a media darling? If not, it might be time to update it.

All employees have an automatically generated personal page on uib.no. This contains contact information and formal information about your position, but it looks undeniably bare if you have not entered any self-selected information such as:

  • A portrait of yourself
  • A description of your competence, both as a researcher, teacher and communicator
  • Your research group and projects, consortia you are part of which may have their own website
  • Link to social media if you disseminate research there
  • Publications from CRISTIN

Feel free to use fields of competence, so that people looking for experts in immunology, diabetes, proteins or something else find you.

The K2 leaders encourages everyone to upload a photo of themselves as a minimum (but we accept that some do not want this for personal reasons), that you specify your subject/field of work and upload a link to publications in CRISTIN. You will find instructions on editing your personal page here: https://manual.uib.no/en/brand-guide/personal-page/

Why is this important? If you apply for funding from The Research Council of Norway, Helse Vest or EU funding, there is a relatively high chance that some of the evaluators will check out your page. If it looks like no one is at home, it is not positive for the evaluation.

Good luck

Eystein and Susanna

Leger Uten Grenser – Informasjonsmøte i Bergen

Leger Uten Grenser is pleased to invite you to our Information Meeting event, that will take place on:

13 March 2023 in Vaskerelven 8, 5014 Bergen (Kulturhuset)

Leger Uten Grenser/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)is looking for both medical and non-medical professionals who can provide life-saving relief where the needs are the highest. The organization is doing an information meeting about fieldwork in Bergen, this March 13.

Please register through the online form below for the event. The event will be in person.

Registration here: https://forms.office.com/e/2N48V9Ypxw

For questions, please contact our office directly by email at the following address: rekruttering@oslo.msf.org

Info meeting in Bergen, 13th March

You will meet our project finance manager and field worker, Kaja Sviland, who has been in assignments with MSF, sharing her experience and giving you insights on how it is to work in the field for MSF.

Date: 13.03.2023

  • Time: 18.00 – 20.00
  • Place: Vaskerelven 8, 5014 Bergen (Kulturhuset)
  • Register: https://forms.office.com/e/2N48V9Ypxw – free entrance . Please invite any of your friends/colleagues that may be interested to join Leger Uten Grenser

About Leger Uten Grenser:

Leger Uten Grenser is a neutral and independent medical aid organization that saves lives and relieves needs. MSF provides health care in war and conflict zones, deploys rapidly on the ground after natural disasters, and provides healthcare to people on the run. We help those who need it the most – no matter who, no matter what, no matter why.

Useful Links:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/leger.uten.grenser/events/

GDPR enforcement in practice and the road ahead – guest lecture

Five years in, the GDPR has raised the bar for data protection significantly.  What role will new regulation, such as the EU’s DSA and DMA, play. Tobias Judin, who is head of the international department at the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, will hold a guest lecture.

GDPR enforcement in practice and the road ahead – guest lecture | Research Group for European Law | UiB
Zoom 13.02.2023 – 12.30–14.00

Armauer Hansen 2023 Anniversary

2023 marks 150 years since the discovery of the leprosy bacillus. This landmark in the history of global health will be celebrated throughout the year, and on February 28 – the date of the first observation of the leprosy bacillus – we invite you to a commemoration in the University Aula.

The Armauer Hansen 2023 Anniversary | University Leadership | UiB
University Aula in Bergen 28.02.2023 – 11.00–13.00

Upcoming events at the International Centre

Tax seminar
Sign up and join us for an online information meeting regarding paying tax in Norway.
This is useful if you are moving to Norway, shifting between Norway and other working countries, or working from abroad. We will have this seminar 2 Fridays per month, from 11.00 to 11.30. The next seminar will be on February 10th. In the registration form you can choose which date you want to sign up to. Read more here.

Mobility seminar
Are you planning a research stay outside of Norway? Join our mobility seminar 16th February to learn about practicalities and necessary steps of planning a research stay abroad. You can register here.

Visit to The Norwegian archive for Queer History
The “Skeivt arkiv” is the Norwegian national archive for queer and LGBTQ+ history. Their key mission is to collect, document and communicate Norwegian and Scandinavian queer history. We will have a guided visit on February 22nd from 14.00 to 15.00. You can register here.

Introduction course
This course is step 2 of our introductory seminars for new international employees. The course will take place on March 29th from 12.30 to 15.30, in Zoom. You can register here.
Please complete step 1 (short e-learning course) before attending.

Tax return seminar
Every year we host a tax seminar for international employees to assist with understanding and filling the tax report in Norway. The seminar is held in English by tax lawyers. It will take place around march/April, we will confirm the date later. You can sign up here.

For new employees
• When you receive your Norwegian ID number, remember to send it to post@lonnskontoret.uib.no.
This also applies when you receive your Norwegian bank account number.
• If you need to book an appointment with us, you can do it through our calendar.

Check your tax card
You can now check your tax card for 2023. If you do not make any changes, your tax deduction percentage will remain unchanged. You can contact the tax administration if you have questions regarding your tax card.
If you were on the PAYE scheme in 2022 and became a tax resident of Norway (you lived in Norway for 183 days), you will be transferred to the ordinary tax scheme this year.

If you have a temporary ID number (D-number) remember to apply for a new tax card this year. If you don’t apply for a tax card, you will get 50% taxes. Make sure you collect your annual statements for 2022 from UiB, bank, financial institutions, NAV or other applicable sources to check that your tax statement for 2022 is correct. You should receive these statements during the month of January or early February.

Event calendars
There are many interesting events, courses, and seminars at UiB throughout the semester. We suggest subscribing to the UiB main calendar and the International Centre calendar.