Monthly Archives: December 2024

Dear everyone!

Now it has already been 6 months since I took over as head of department at K2. Time has flown by and Christmas is already next week! I’m almost done with my performance appraisals (all associate professors and professors with 50%-100% position), only a few remain. It has been very useful to get to know the people who make up our academic backbone better, and I have received a lot of good input. Here again a reminder to the research group leaders to ensure that all our employees have the opportunity for an employee interview, and at the same time those who have not yet been offered can request it as well.

As we know, the economy is very tough, and we must continue to reduce our expenses and at the same time increase revenues in 2025. This is what we are working on! Again, an invitation to actively use our core facilities (https://www.uib.no/klin2/63499/kjernefasiliteter), use buy-out of your own time or a technician in applications and consider opportunities to offer continuing and further education (EVU; https://www.uib.no/utdanning/evu).

Despite all the challenges, 2024 has been a successful year for K2 with many awards from external financiers as well as many awards to researchers and teachers associated with K2 (including “Søren Falch and Øienlæge Sigurd Falch’s Foundation’s Junior Prize for Young Researchers” to Marc Vaudel and “Søren Falch and Øienlæge Sigurd Falch’s Award for Outstanding Leadership in Medical Research” to Eva Gerdts, to name a few). Thank you so much for your efforts, everyone!

I wish you all a peaceful and Merry Christmas!

Silke

How to Prepare a Successful Application for the Innovative Health Initiative Partnership (IHI)

Do you want to apply for project funding from the IHI partnership and need tips for a successful application? Then join this common Nordic webinar, where the upcoming IHI-calls will be presented and the competitive consortium will be discussed. The webinar will take place 21 January, 1-3 pm.

  • When January 21, 2025 from 01:00 PM to 03:00 PM
  • Where Zoom

https://ufm.dk/en/newsroom/calendar/2025/webinar-how-to-prepare-a-successful-application-for-the-innovative-health-initiative-partnership-1

The Global Health EDCTP3 Work Programme 2025 has been published.

The Global Health EDCTP3 Work Programme 2025 has been published.

The calls will support a range of Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) aimed at developing novel vaccines and therapeutics for tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases:

  • Vaccines for reducing the disease burden of tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Malaria therapeutics and clinical development of new antimalarial candidates
  • Accelerating the development of prophylactic vaccines against neglected tropical diseases.

Additionally, Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) will strengthen the enabling environment for conducting clinical research in Africa:

  • Strategic training hubs for fellowships in public health
  • Strengthening the regional networks of excellence and epidemic preparedness consortia.

The rapidly growing climate and health challenge will be addressed in Research and Innovation Actions (RIA):

  • Tackling diarrhoeal diseases in the context of climate and health transformative innovations
  • Transformative innovations in global health.

The calls for proposals will open in late January 2025. Deadline for a short proposal is in March 2025 and a full proposal by September 2025.

https://www.global-health-edctp3.europa.eu/news-and-events/news/global-health-edctp3-work-programme-2025-published-2024-12-17_en

Seminar for PhD Candidates: Maximizing Efficiency and Thriving in Your Doctoral Journey

arget group: PhD candidates and early career researchers

Are you looking to maximize your efficiency and make the most of your time? Curious about what sets top performers apart and how you can join their ranks while still enjoying other aspects of life?

For the past three years, The Occupational Health Service at UiB has been helping early career researchers tackle these very questions. Drawing from these experiences and feedback at UiB, as well as international research and best practices from top universities worldwide, the seminar is crafted and designed to address these topics.

The aim of the seminar is to help you become the best version of yourself during your doctoral journey, thriving in all areas of life. Attend this seminar and dive into engaging topics and exercises, including:

06.02.2025 – 12.00–07.02.2025 – 18.00
Nygårdsgaten 5, Søndre Allmenning 1

Registration by 22 January

https://www.uib.no/en/med/174720/seminar-phd-candidates-maximizing-efficiency-and-thriving-your-doctoral-journey

 

Pandemic breakfast #1

Ingeborg Forthun is a researcher at the Department of Disease Burden at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. She holds a PhD in epidemiology and work, among other things, with monitoring overall mortality in the population. Title of the presentation: Excess Mortality in the Nordic Countries During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Oddvar Kaarbøe is a health economist and professor. He holds a joint professorship in health economics at both the Department of Economics and the Department of Global Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen. His research focuses on health economics, incentive theory, and evolutionary game theory.

 Date: January 23, 2025
Time: 08.30-09.15

https://www.uib.no/en/pandemic/174503/pandemic-breakfast-1

In science, we trust? — The role of science-based knowledge in turbulent times

Welcome to Day Zero of the SDG Conference Bergen, 5 February 2025! As usual, there will be a series of parallel events. The day starts with a panel on the role of science-based knowledge in turbulent times.

Trust in science is seen to have eroded in recent years. There are widespread anti-science sentiments in politics and social media, as seen particularly in debates around climate change and pandemics. In this opening session for Day Zero, we will discuss whether trust in science actually has eroded and what this means for scientists, science communicators and policymakers.

The session will open with a presentation of the large-scale study Trust in Science and Science-related populism, by Viktoria Cologna who led the study. This is followed by a presentation of an international project on disinformation in the media, by Media City Bergen.

The panel discussion will focus on how research can adapt and be resilient and robust in these turbulent times.

https://www.uib.no/en/sdgconference/174447/day-zero-2025-programme

Leena Peltonen School of Human Genomics

Leena Peltonen School of Human Genomics

 Founded in 2011 to honor the pioneering Finnish geneticist Leena Peltonen (1952–2010), this summer school offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn and be inspired from the leading voices in human genomics. Students will gain insights and inspiration from top scientists across academia and industry who are actively advancing the field. Many past attendees have since become leaders at the forefront of this research.

Target Audience: Scientists and clinicians nearing the completion of their PhD, or those recently graduated, in human genetics, genomics, health-focused AI, and precision medicine. The selection process will take place in Spring 2025.

 Application deadline: 7th of March 2025

https://lpshg.com/

This weeks edithorial

The research conducted by PhD candidates constitutes an important part of UiB’s overall research efforts. In 2023, PhD candidates were the sole or co-authors on 30 percent of UiB’s publications. Of the 215 completed PhDs at UiB in 2023, the Faculty of Medicine accounted for 80. Of these, 25 were completed at K2, 28 at IGS, and 17 at K1, while IBM and IKO each had 5. For 2024, a total of 26 PhD candidates will receive their doctorates at K2. This is a great.

In recent years, there has been a decline in the number of joint announcements of PhD positions at the faculty, with only two such positions advertised in the fall of 2024, with nearly 50 applicants. Unfortunately, there will be no room for announcing PhD positions at all in the spring of 2025. The reason for this is increasingly constrained budgets, the use of PhD positions as a co-payment in larger applications and rewards for grants, as well as delays in PhD completion, making the budgets more uncertain for the faculty.

In terms of completion, K2 is fairly stable. About 70% of all started PhDs have defended their dissertations within 6 years. Staff appraisals should be actively used to uncover and remedy delaying factors where possible.

Furthermore, all postdocs who wish to continue an academic career are encouraged to apply for the Momentum program, for which MedFak has 4 spots, with an application deadline of March 21.

The Christmas tree shows the research areas of permanent scientific staff at K2. If you believe your area is not included, please send up to 10 keywords to our research advisor Susanna Pakkasmaa. This will help her send targeted information about relevant announcements.
Merry Christmas!

Kurt

UiB research infrastructure day

The university management invites you to a joint research infrastructure day at UiB to highlight the importance of research infrastructure in order to build up and retain internationally leading research environments at a broad university such as UiB. We ask anyone interested in research infrastructure to set the date. More information and a draft program will be available in the first week of January.

  • 07.02.2025 – 09.00–15.30
  • NG5 Storsalen and UiB learning arena, Nygårdsgaten 5

https://www.uib.no/fia/174733/uib-forskningsinfrastrukturdag

 

Join us online on 18 February 2025!

This online info session is open to all researchers and innovators at any career stage and from any field of research, especially young researchers. The aim is to inform the research community on how to participate in COST Actions or submit a COST Action proposal, the role and impact of the COST programme, and the benefits of the COST offer.

Registration is required via an online form: https://forms.office.com/e/ZgLXjqdhNm
18 February 2025, 10:00-11:45 CET (Brussels time zone)

Programme overview
10:00 | Welcome | COST Governance Officer
10:05 | Introduction about COST | Director of the COST Association
10:20 | How to participate in a COST Action? How to submit an application? | COST Science Officer
10:50 | Which activities are funded? | COST Administrative Officer
11:05 | What are the benefits of participating in COST? | COST Action representative
11:25 | Q&A
11:40 | Closure of the session

 

https://www.cost.eu/cost-events/online-cost-info-day-2025/