Today, we will submit the budget proposal for 2019. It is an ambitious budget that addresses the challenges we face in the coming year in terms of education and research. The finance section deserves a big thank you for solid work with the budget.

As discussed at the Faculty Lunch and announced in previous K2 News, we would like to look at the opportunity to organize teaching at K2 in a different way to achieve better command lines, responsibility, and authority for those who need it. This is in line with the evaluation of the Future Faculty. We have organized a committee consisting of Jone Trovik, Julie Stavnes, Tore Lillebø, Svein Håvik, Gottfried Greve, and Kristin Greve Isdahl. They will explore various possibilities for how the teaching can be organized so that it can be integrated with the research groups that we still need to retain as the main structure of the institute. The results of the investigation are expected during the autumn.

Furthermore, we have invited the academic communities to come up with proposals for thematic areas they consider important for future-oriented research, and how this can be linked to education and innovation, and preferably people they consider relevant to an tenure track position. There were five proposals: Medical bioinformatics, endocrinology and biorythms, rheumatology, influenza, and galenic pharmacy. In the budget process, we are now working to find room for 1-2 positions within some of these fields.

At the time of writing, I am on my way to an interview at the US Embassy in Oslo. Before I applied for the position as Head of K2, I already had approved a research term in Boston at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. With the new position and new assignments, I have chosen to postpone the stay to September 20th, so we can get a good start for K2 after the summer vacation. Furthermore, the time is cut down to six months. A plan has been put in place to take care of my functions. Most importantly, Eystein Husebye is willing to be Acting Head of Department (thank you very much, Eystein!). This is a position he has had several times before, and I’m sure he will take care of the function in an excellent way.

We have had an amazing spring with better weather than several summers combined. People from Bergen are good at taking the opportunity to enjoy good weather when it suddenly appears, and one may wonder whether we really need summer vacation after this spring. However, for most people, it has been busy working with applications, completion of examinations and planning the first OSCE, as well as all endings at the end of a semester. So it will be good to have a few weeks off to do completely other things. It’s important to charge the batteries so we can start the fall with new energy and workload. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your great effort this half year. Have a nice summer vacation!