Head of Department Njølstad has explained K2’s finances, which entail major cuts in our budgets. This means that we must take radical action to obtain balance. Therefore, the we propose that the salaries of all K2 employees be cut by 5%, with the exception of those in the leadership. After all, we are heavily burdened by doing so. Furthermore, all operating funds for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows will be confiscated. You can apply to the Head of department for a refund of up to half of your operating budget for particularly important tasks. Furthermore, all PhD students or their research group must pay for the assessment of the PhD dissertations. Finally, all KG-Jebsen and Trond Mohn centers at K2 will be charged an extra “tax” to cover the deficit, approximately 250,000 per year.

We regret that we have to take such radical steps to get the budget in balance, but we see no other options. You can read about the detailed cuts by click on this link.

Good weekend, when the time comes

On behalf of the leadership group

Peer review guides the journal’s editorial staff in making publication decisions and identifying substandard manuscripts that should not be published. It also provides authors with the opportunity to improve the quality and clarity of their manuscripts. The purpose of peer review is not to demonstrate the reviewer’s proficiency in identifying flaws; negative critiques are not obligated. Reviewers should identify strengths and provide constructive comments to help authors resolve weaknesses in the work.

Because the number of scientific articles published each year continues to grow, the quality of the peer-review process and the quality of the editorial board are cited as primary influences on a journal’s reputation, Journal Impact Factor, and standing in the field. Scientific journals publishing peer-reviewed articles depend heavily on the scientific referees or reviewers who typically volunteer their time and expertise. In addition to fairness in judgment and expertise in the field, reviewers have significant responsibilities toward authors, editors, and readers. Reviewers also have ethical responsibilities, such as confidentiality, be constructive in the critique, have necessary competence, be impartial and hold integrity.

Published biomedical papers may have a direct impact on clinical practice and inform policy. Therefore, it is crucial to have the peer review system and that peer reviewer reports are of the highest quality possible to inform editors’ decision on the fate of the manuscript. It is crucial that we spend time on peer reviews for the journals. As reviewers, will also learn from the process and it is way to stay informed about how the field is moving before the research is in print.

Professor emeritus Jan Erik Nordrehaug at K2 has performed peer reviews for a number of journals in a lifetime including the Norwegian Journal of the Medical Association. For this, he will now have the Journal´s award “The Reviewer of 2021”. The Scientific Director, Siri Lunde Strømme, says “We have benefited greatly from an impressive number of, and always solid, reviews from Nordrehaug over the years, so also in 2021”. Congratulations!!!

Have a nice week-end,
Pål.

Dear all of you!

Now it has already been more than 3 weeks since we finally got to meet at Solstrand again for our strategy seminar. It was incredibly nice to meet so many of you! I hope that there are more people who thought that it was nice and useful to have the seminar, but feel free to give feedback here (link).

Speaking of meeting people: 17-18 June 2022 it is UiB’s turn to organize the NorDoc conference for PhD candidates from Nordic countries with scientific presentations and debates from leading researchers. The goal is to raise awareness of responsible research and innovation as a strategy for achieving sustainability in health and medical science.

The program is available here: https://www.uib.no/en/med/149977/programme-nordoc-2022 The conference offers PhD candidates not only network opportunities, but also workshops on career development and transferable skills. So, this can be very useful to you!
The registration deadline is 16 April.

Last week, the university management visited the Faculty of Medicine. On Thursday they were with us at K2. Those who attended were Rector Margareth Hagen, Vice-Rector Pinar Heggernes, Vice-Rector Benedicte Carlsen, Senior Consultant Morgan Reza Rashidi Alangeh, University Director Robert Rastad, Assistant University Director Tore Tungodden and Department Director Kari Fuglseth.

We held the meeting in Glasblokkene with a good view of the many buildings K2 is located on Campus Haukeland and to show the close relationship with the university hospital. There was room for three short professional talks. Professor Eva Gerdts seemed to convince everyone that there is a big difference between women and men in terms of heart disease and that more research is needed to better treat women with heart disease. Researcher Marc Vaudel aroused interest in data showing that the child’s own genes are most important for birth weight and increased risk of diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. And Professor Eystein Husebye demonstrated the Endopod, a teaching podcast developed by a medical student in his research group.

The university management had wanted to hear our thoughts on opportunities and challenges. Regarding the first, we pointed out the opportunities for research, teaching and innovation in the close relationship with Haukeland University Hospital. We have several centers under planning and have an application for a COE in the finals. We see many opportunities to increase external funding, especially EU funds, and that building a culture on K2 is important. When it comes to challenges, the failing economy is key. We perceive that there is a gradual reduction of K2 by a significant reduction in our basic allocation over the last three years. The cuts hit us especially hard due to our large BOA economy. We perceive this as unfair and demoralizing. We also explained that so far, we have not had any streamlining or improvement of the economy through the introduction of the BOTT systems, centralization of finance and specialists. Both the Rector and the University Director agreed with our description of the situation and that this is of great concern. Various measures were discussed. The university management works intensively with the case through various channels. They want to come back to visit some of our centers to learn more about how they work. These are good signals from the management!

Wishing everyone as good a weekend as possible given the situation in Ukraine. My thoughts go to the Ukrainian people who are having a terrible time now.

Pål