The course is aimed at those of you who want to learn how to use a confocal microscope and will help you get started in the field of confocal imaging either you use the equipment at MIC or at your local institution. The course will take place on April 14-17, 2015, at MIC at Department of Biomedicine. For more information click here.
The Network Meeting will take place on 18.03.2015 at 14-17 in Oslo. Topic: “Role of nutrition in cancer – prevention, treatment and rehabilitation”. For more information click here.
The event will take place on May 19-22, 2015, in Bergen. For more information click here.
The faculty is inviting to a supervisor seminar on March 25. The event will take place at Scandic Hotell Bergen City at 09:00 – 15:45. The course will be led by Roland Jonsson and Per Bakke. Binding registration is done my sending an e-mail to Mirza.mujic@mofa.uib.no by March 1. Click here for poster about the event (in Norwegian). Click here for program (in Norwegian).
On an annual basis Department of Clinical Science has to report to the Faculty about what has been done to favour quality of the doctoral education and training for our 140-145 active PhD trainees. For 2013 we reported that the mandatory part of the UiB fellowships had to be checked up, on promotion of the research schools, to establish new research training courses and an increased focus on career planning and mobility of our candidates.
Has this been followed up? Yes, to a major extent. The routines for handling the mandatory part (25%) of the UiB fellowships have been better organized. Regarding the research schools the new seminar series “Perspectives in translational medicine” has become a success with challenging and appealing lectures in the Bergen Postgraduate School of Clinical Medicine Research. And the Bergen Research School of Inflammation has established new courses (flowcytometry) and seen an increase in attendance at their immunology courses.
For the future it will also be a priority for both the PhD candidates and with the help from supervisors to plan the coming careers as well as increase the mobility e.g. visits with other groups/laboratories. Some of our candidates have got really interesting international visits, but this could have been much more implemented. It should also be emphasised that the research group leaders are encouraged to have meetings with the PhD candidates annually e.g. “medarbeidersamtaler” to pick up problems, misunderstandings etc. and not only the regular progress reports.
There has been no failure of PhD theses at Department of Clinical Science in 2014; a total of 23 candidates have finalized their theses with a public defence. Also the interaction between supervisors and PhD candidates has been smooth with only a few misunderstandings/problems, and these have been sorted out. So we are on the right track…….
Roland
The faculty has only received suggestions for medical student theses from one supervisor. It is a need that more suggestions are submitted. We would again like to notify that all scientific employees at the faculty have a duty to supervise at least one student with medical student thesis every second year. For more information (in Norwegian) click here.
As part of Darwin Day 2015 on 12.02.0215, Marta Mirazón Lahr, evolutionary anthropologist at University of Cambridge, will give the lecture “The Evolution of Human Diversity”. The lecture takes place in Egget, Studentsenteret at 16:00 – 17:30. For more information click here.
The academic sections at the department are invited to submit candidates for Falch’s Lecture and Falch’s Junior Prize by 01.03.2015. Click here for more information on Falch’s Lecture (in Norwegian). Click here for more information on Falch’s Junior Prize (in Norwegian)
We wish to congratulate all winners of Research Presentations 2014! Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn from K2 won the prize for best oral presentation, with runners up Arvid Steinar Haugen (K2) and Hilde Løland von Volkmann (K1). Tesfaye Leta from K1 won the prize for best poster presentations, with runners up Hege Clemm (K2) and Christel Gill Haanshuus (National Center for Tropical Infectious Diseases, HUS). Click here for more information about the winners and the event. Click here for a summary of the event written by jury member Rebecca Cox Brokstad.
FAA and NFR will arrange a dialogue meeting about EEA funding to our researchers. The meeting will take place on 12.02.2015 in Jekteviksbakken 31. Click here for more information about the meeting (in Norwegian). Click here to sign up.
The course will be arranged at Department of Clinical Science between April 20 – April 24, 2015. Deadline for signing up is 20.02.2015. For more information click here.
2014 has been a demanding and tight budget year. However, we still managed to close the budget in balance, which was important in order to visualize the good financial management of K2. We have not increased our debts in 2014, but we still have to tackle our old debt of 3.2 million from 2013. Thus, we must outline how we intend to reduce the deficit in the coming years.
The 2015 budget must be in balance despite the extra “burden” of a very good result of the local salary negotiations for K2 employees. The negotiations ended with a 5 % salary increase which increased the annual salary costs at K2 with 2.6 million per year. We will obtain a 3 % salary- and price compensation, but an overall 1.6 % cut by UiB’s central administration brings the overall compensation down to 1,4%. Thus, in order to achieve a balanced budget we have to continue with technician payment of 50 000 per year per technician. We will receive a total of 4 million in operating funds for PhD and Postdocs. Of these, 2.8 million will be spent on the 25 public defenses planned for 2015, and approximately 500.000 will be used to cover the deficits. The remaining 650.000 will be earmarked PhD-Candidates and Postdocs. To compensate, the annual Small Operating Funds of 760.000 will be allocated to PhD-Candidates and Postdocs; candidates from “poor” research groups will have priority (announcement will come in February). As for external funding, it is great to register that there has been a 46 % increase in BOA-funding since the establishment of K2 in 2013.
K2 thus has many “rich” groups, but the department itself has very little room to maneuver. As a result it is almost given how we have to distribute our funding to come deliver a budget in balance.
The budget will be on the agenda at the Institute Council on February 5.
Click here for the budget.
Best regards
Eystein Husebye Synnøve Myhre
Head of Department Head of Administration
Last September we learned that Jan Haavik (Biomedicine) and Stefan Johansson landed their first Horizon 2020-project called MiND in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie program, under the pillar Excellent Science. Soon after, Gunnar Mellgren received an ERA-NET grant for a project aiming at studying cancer-preventive effects of diabetes drugs. Both ERA-NET and IMI are specific programs with a thematic focus, thus complementing H2020. With 2 granted projects out of 5 applications, K2 did very well.
Now the results from the first announcement of health-related research projects in Horizon 2020 are being published. Helga Salvesen obtained a grant for a cancer project tied to the pillar Societal Challenges called Female cancer prediction using cervical omics to individualise screening and prevention (FORECEE). Helse Bergen is partner, while UiB represented by K2 is associated partner, so-called 3rd party. Recently we also learned that Cecilie Svanes, affiliated with Center for International Health and Public Health but also a part of the thoracic medicine research group, successfully obtained a grant to study lung health across generations in European cohorts.
Last week I obtained a grant based on the application ULTRADIAN as coordinator, a project focusing on developing dynamic hormone diagnostics. Nine out of 466 applications obtained grants, which gives a success rate of 1.9%. As many as 138 of the 466 projects qualified for round 2. The EU-commission has received criticism for letting too many application through to the final round, so now the bar will be raised in future calls. Another reason for low success rates (1.9-6.9%) was that an unusual high number of applications were submitted.
All in all MOFA still has had a reasonably good start in H2020, but more grants would have been desirable. How does one succeed? Key success factors are to build or participate in strong networks with “EU-experience”, another is to involve industry (SME) as much as possible. K2 is prioritizing administrative resources to those who wish to write applications, and it is also possible to obtain positioning funds (PES) in order free time for application writing, networking, meetings and consultants.
Good luck with future applications
Best regards
Eystein Husebye
A political strike against changes in the The Wokring Environment Act will take place on 28.01 at 14:00-16:00.
As per instructions from the Department, enterprises will deduct salary from employees participating in the strike.
-All UiB employees planning to leave their work place in order to participate in the strike must warn nearest leader and their union representative as soon as possible, an no later than by the end of Friday 23.01.
– Necessary preparedness must be taken into consideration
– Salary will be deducted for participating in the strike
– Faculties and departments will subsequent to the event submit a list of names to the Payroll Office with copy sent to Division of Human Resources.
For more information click here (in Norwegian)
Ingrid Kristin Torsvik will have her Public defence on Friday January 30, 2015
Trial lecture: Friday January 30. 2015, 10.15
Topic: “Svangerskap etter overvekts kirurgi; risiko for mor og det nyfødte barnet”
Place: Barneklinikkens auditorium, Jonas Lies vei 65
Public defence: Friday January 30, 2015, 12.15
Place: Barneklinikkens auditorium, Jonas Lies vei 65
Title of dissertation: “B vitamin and iron status during infancy”
1st opponent Professor Olle Hernell, Universitetet i Umeå, Sverige
2st opponent : Professor Claus Klingenberg, Norges arktiske universitet, Tromsø
