Happy New Year!

Christmas and the holiday season is over. I hope most people have had an experience of holiday and the opportunity for reflection, and gathering with those they love. It gives motivation and strength to embark on a new year with new opportunities.

2022 starts with increasing coronary infection wave due to omicron variant. It presents several challenges for our activity, but my impression is that it is going pretty well anyway. We have become accustomed to this situation. Fortunately, we work at an institution that comes out relatively well since most people have permanent jobs and the activity has not stopped with bankruptcy that threatens the way other enterprises experience. The ones I think come out the worst are children, young people and the elderly due to isolation for groups that have a great social need. Let us hope that the vaccination coverage will soon reach a level that reduces the waves of infection and allows normal activity to resume.

With a new year, there are many exciting opportunities. I will remind you of the application deadlines for RCN 2/2 and 9/2. It is difficult, but not impossible, to get funded, and he/she who dares nothing, wins nothing. The feedback is better than before, and it provides a good basis for improving the application for a next round. I will otherwise draw attention to the new programs in Horizon Europe. We should apply for more EU funding!

Enjoy the new year!

The economy is tightening

It’s never nice to talk about finances when it’s getting worse. Unfortunately, the economy will be tighter in the future.

The Corona pandemic has so far entailed several extra expenses for UiB, which are now distributed among the faculties according to the size of their basic grant. Since the Faculty of Medicine is one of the largest faculties, we therefore get one of the biggest cuts in the budget for the next three years. Our faculty takes most of the bill, but some is distributed among the departments, also here according to the size of the basic grant. For K2, this means a cut of approx. NOK 2.2 million annually for the next three years.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. Upon its departure, the Solberg Government served a major cut for all universities in Norway. A change in pension financing means that the university and college sector will no longer pay pension costs as a fixed percentage of the salary base but will pay for actual pension costs throughout the year. Together with some other measures, more than a billion kroner will be cut for the universities as a whole. Unfortunately, the new Støre Government has not only sustained it, but rather increased it. This is a permanent cut in the basic allocation to the universities. That means a weakened economy for K2 in the years to come. We will try not to withdraw positions and look for other ways to reduce costs. And then there is the issue of increasing our revenues: external financing is becoming more important than ever. So, get on with the applications. K2 cheers on you!

In this new situation, it is important that we have a common understanding of the challenge and that we must stand together in this. Then there is also an opportunity to be innovative and find new solutions that can even improve our primary tasks: research, teaching, innovation and communication. And for the record: K2 Retreat 2 on Solstrand is going as planned. That will be a good opportunity to discuss across research groups, teaching groups, staff groups and organizational units – alternative and better ways of working with somewhat less use of resources.

We will make it through this! Let’s develop an even better K2.

Have a great weekend!

Pål R. Njølstad
Department Head

Strategy for the future – you can look forward to the Solstrand meeting 24-25 February

The program for the strategy seminar at Solstrand is starting to shape up and will be very exciting. A main theme will be our collaboration with the health trusts in Western Norway. There will be talks by both Eivind Hansen and Per Bakke followed by a panel discussion where we hope the department’s employees will be active. We have a good collaboration, but it can get better. The competition for the best researchers and teachers is fierce and resources are scarce. How can we make the best use of our potential? We hope that the discussion can lead to 2-3 concrete proposals that can be put into practice.

Another main theme will be research funding with an emphasis on EU funding. Katie Anders from the Research Department and our envoy in Brussels, Charlotte Eide will participate. Application opportunities and information about Digital Europe are on the agenda. Related to this will be talks about innovation and what opportunities the incubator Eitri has to offer.

We will focus on teaching and dissemination on various platforms, including participation by the head of the Center for Investigative Journalism, Per Christian Magnus. How can we convey research in a more sober, yet exciting way without sensational postings that create unrealistic expectations?

The individual research groups and environments will also have the opportunity to present themselves and there will also be a competition, perhaps even an OSCE exam?.

We also hope there will be amble time for social interactions across groups and campi where K2 is represented.

Have high expectations and be an active participant!

Good weekend
Eystein Husebye
Deputy Head of K2