Category Archives: This week’s editorial

The leader of the week

The harvest is great, but the workers few

As an employee at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital for almost 30 years, I have been able to take part in and witness a fantastic development of research and competence in our institutions. All colleagues who are employed in so-called dual positions are in many ways the hub of this collaboration and are key people in driving clinical research forward. Therefore, I would like to ask the question – can we build on and expand this strategy?

Both HUS and UiB have financial challenges that require restructuring. At the same time, the number of medical students will be greatly increased and clinical teaching will be spread to many hospitals in the region. Stavanger University Hospital has already established a full clinical study for medical students, and Haugesund and Førde will eventually follow suit. This will require a lot of teaching staff of people with formal pedagogical competence who will also preferably conduct research at the top of the world and at the same time preferably bring in millions of competitive research funds

The autumn is great, but the workers are few, it is written somewhere – can we obtain more workers for this big task? Can more health personnel with formal research competence be linked to UiB without necessarily having a part-time position and thus be qualified to be main supervisors for PhD students? Can such an affiliation oblige to some teaching at “Vestland Medical School” according to a system similar to that of “Harvard Medical School”? In return for this, these doctors (or other professions) who want to conduct research will have access to the university’s systems and resources for pedagogical education.

I am convinced that both UiB, HUS and the individual medical researcher will benefit from such cooperation. The medical community in Bergen at large will also be better armed in the battle for scarce national resources.

HUS + UiB is true?

Have a good weekend when the time comes,

Eystein
Deputy director

Dear everyone!

I continue to nag a little about employee interviews. The responsibility for carrying them out is assigned to the research group leaders, and it is therefore important that all employees at K2 belong to a research group. Susanne is working on updating the overview of the research groups, so feel free to check with her if you do not know who your research group leader is. Remember that this year I will have an employee appraisal with all associate professors and professors in a 50% position or more, I will send out possible dates to those concerned during the next week.

In order to follow up on my desire for closer dialogue with the teaching group, research group and core facility leaders, it will be a little more often that we have joint meetings with the management group. The next time will be:

29 October: UGLE meeting with all Teaching Group Leaders (UGLE) and vice-UGLE

26 November: FORUM meeting with all research group and core facility leaders

Have a great weekend! Remember to set the clock on Sunday 😊

Silke

Leader of the week

Dear everyone,

For those who do not know me, my name is Svein Skeie, and I am the Research Director at Stavanger University Hospital (SUS) and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine/K2. My professional background includes specialties in internal medicine, geriatrics, and endocrinology. I am pleased to be part of the leadership team at K2, and it is natural for me to write a leader’s note from time to time.

At SUS, we are now well underway with Vestlandslegen – both with students and positions. It is a significant challenge to implement the study plan in the hospital. We are also building a new hospital (new SUS), where most of the somatic inpatient activities will move in November 2025. This also needs to be prepared for UiB. In the new hospital, UiB has about 1000m² of its own space, providing a much better starting point than we previously had for practice students (2015 plan). Alongside building the education, research activities will also be developed. Research has not been the main focus so far, but with more employees in part-time positions, new opportunities arise, also for colleagues employed in Bergen. The research opportunities at SUS are good, and increased collaboration can provide new research opportunities for the subjects under K2. In 2023, SUS and UiB had a total of 163 co-publications, showing that there is already significant activity.

Perhaps you have colleagues at SUS with whom it would be natural to collaborate more? Maybe you want to collaborate but are unsure how to establish it? If you need help finding your way into SUS, please feel free to contact me.

Have an excellent weekend!

Svein

This weeks edithorial

Dear everyone,

today is the last day of autumn holiday (for those who have) which I will use to remind everyone that traditionally we have always used autumn to conduct the annual employee appraisals.

All employees with a main position at UiB must have employee appraisals. This also includes PhD candidates, and then it is important to remember that the conversation is not carried out by the supervisor. For employees with a part-time position (or extra employment as it is now called), the research group leader can agree with the employee that it is not necessary.

Employee appraisals are an important arena for clarifying performance expectations, providing mutual feedback and insight into each other’s work situation, and addressing the working environment and conditions at the workplace. For younger researchers in particular, it is important that career planning is included, and that basic pedagogical competence and teaching experience are something they should think about.

Since I am the new head of department, this time I will have employee appraisals with all permanently employed associate professors and professors in main position (at least 50%) in additon to research group leaders and core facility leaders.  According to my list, there will be 49 talks, so I hope that you understand that it will stretch over some time.

Head of Administration Mia Holmaas is responsible for the employee appraisals with employees in the administration.

Otherwise, the conduct of the employee appraisals is delegated to the research group leaders – again a reminder that all employees must belong to a research group. This is a process we are working on, Susanna has already sent out some questions to the research group leaders so that we can make sure that all employees actually receive an employee interview.

Have a great weekend!

Silke

This weeks edithorial – week 40

On September 20th, the Innovation Festival at the University of Bergen (UiB) was arranged for the first time. It brought together staff and students from all faculties, as well as representatives from companies and organizations that have made significant progress in innovation and establishment processes, or can contribute to such efforts (e.g. the Norwegian Industrial Property Office).

The program struck a good balance between inspiration and specific advice concerning the innovation process and support functions. Some important reminders surfaced, such as: protecting an invention does not necessarily mean applying for a patent. Depending on the product, idea and purpose, one can, for example, enter into a licensing agreement with a company that uses a method or protocol but keeps it secret, or register a trademark.

There were also reflections on the idea that, in our era of open access, one should not necessarily share ideas or inventions just for the sake of openness, but consider the values of one’ inventions and how they can be exploited. Once published, it is usually too late, so this needs to be considered early on.

Professor Daniela Elena Costea from the Department of Clinical Medicine gave an exciting presentation on targeted drug delivery using nanodiamonds. However, innovation can also be an integral part of dissemination. Researcher Irene Baug from the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion demonstrated how virtual reconstructions of medieval buildings can give a vivid impression of Bergen’s past. There should be ample opportunities for disseminating results from medical research in a similar manner.

The day concluded with the awarding of this year’s UiB Idea grants. Two of the student projects awarded with grants originate from K2: A new external defibrillator by Mads Malm Svenningsson (supervisor Vegard Tuseth) and Kasi – a case study app for medical students by Erlend Thue, Jesper Andreas Viste, Gard Andreas Svendal, Jonas Hodneland Sundfjord, and Trond August Flatås (supervisor Harald Gotten Wiker). Congratulations!

More detailed coverage of the event can be found here.

When the second Innovation Festival is hopefully held in 2025, I hope more K2 staff will take the time to participate.

This weeks edithorial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear everyone!

First and foremost: Congratulations to Marit Sandberg, PhD candidate at the Centre for Research on Heart Disease in Women, who won  the Researcher Grand Prix in Bergen! She researches pregnancy and childbirth in women with congenital heart disease and convinced both the audience and the judges with her presentation. It is great that one of our PhD candidates will represent UiB in the final in Oslo, we wish you good luck!

Furthermore, we continue to work on our finances, it is important that everyone understands the serious situation we are in. We have to budget externally funded projects in such a way that the department does not run a deficit overall. As part of that process, we will now have a survey of our technical staff, as the first step we have invited to an information meeting and a FORUM meeting with all research group and core facility managers. If we stand together, we will manage this situation!

Have a great weekend!

Silke

 

 

This weeks edithorial

Dear all,

it is with enthusiasm that I have now stepped into the role as new Head of Teaching at K2 – a comprehensive and multifaceted department with many very skilled colleagues!

I have a background as physician at the Department of Pediatrics at Haukeland University Hospital since 1998 and head of the clinical trials unit for children since 2011 with a strong focus on drug trials and patient-oriented research in general. For over 20 years, I have been involved in medical student teaching, which I have found very meaningful throughout. In March 2022, I started as teaching group leader (UGLE) of pediatrics and MED9 semester chair and have through the latter role been part of the Program Committee in Medicine (PUM) for the past two and a half years.

This week there was a Vestlandslege-meeting in Stavanger with important and good interaction between UiB colleagues in Faggrupper på tvers. There is great excitement related to the governmental budget that will come in a few weeks, where there is hope for a further increase in number of medical students at UiB in line with adjusted plans for Vestlandslegen and similar regional projects at the other medical faculties.

It is nice and meaningful to contribute to us all getting good doctors, pharmacists and nutritionists for the future, and many of you contribute in an impressive way – across subject areas, semesters, departments and professions. In addition, there is a large number of good colleagues in the health care system without a UiB position who provide crucially important student teaching and practice supervision.

Next week we will have the Medical Faculty Joint Teaching Day at Armauer Hansen House. I hope as many of you as possible will have the opportunity to participate!

Camilla

This weeks edithorial

Dear everyone,

On my way to work this morning in the gray weather, I became aware of a man standing next to his bike, looking towards Løvstakken. There was a double rainbow with a magical gleam! Then I thought a bit about the situation at the Department of Clinical Science (K2): we are in a very dark financial situation, but this week we celebrated the opening of the KG Jebsen Center for Myeloid Blood Cancer c-myc, led by Bjørn Tore Gjertsen. It is the 4th KG Jebsen center we have at the department (out of 8 at UiB)! The opening was marked with a two-day symposium with many fine words, and not least exciting scientific lectures. As a very proud head of department, I was able to both thank the foundation for the financial support and congratulate Bjørn Tore. I look forward to following the development of the center and am sure that it will shine as much as the rainbow this morning!

Otherwise, this week we have had a GMO inspection. K2 was praised for having regular internal checks (thank you very much, Siv Lise!), and what was criticized is easy to do something about. So thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to a well-conducted inspection! And a little reminder to everyone who works with GMO that there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be done and not least lab routines that are important to follow.

And I will end with reminding everyone that the faculty is organizing a joint teaching day (in Norwegian) September 24 in the auditorium of AHH.

Have a great weekend!

Greetings from Silke

This weeks edithorial


As the newly appointed research leader at K2, this is my first editorial in K2-nytt. I am a medical specialist in infectious diseases and completed a PhD in 2012 on clinical and immunological analyses of patients with long-term complaints following the Giardia outbreak in 2004. Since then, I have researched diarrheal diseases and immunology with Giardia, ETEC, and Cryptosporidium as my favorite microbes.

In my new role, there is much I want to familiarize myself with. I have started by getting an overview of the research activities at K2. Measured in publications, K2 is involved in around 480 scientific articles per year. This has been stable over the past four years. 65% of our publications have international co-authorship, and 89% are published with open access. It is gratifying that the proportion of high-quality publications, published in the more selective level-2 journals, has shown positive development from 18% in 2021 to 25% in 2023. Our research publication relative to our number of first positions and full-time equivalents has remained stable in recent years.

The goal must be to maintain or improve the quality and research production at K2 despite tight finances and necessary cost-saving measures that must be implemented this year and next year. We managed to keep going through the pandemic, and I see it as an important task for me in my role as research leader at K2 to help ensure that we achieve this in the future as well.

I have an office on the 5th floor of the Lab building if you want to have a chat with me. For those interested in more publication statistics from UiB, this can be found at https://bibliometri.w.uib.no/

Dear everyone,

As many as 5 out of 8 applications that have proceeded to round 2 of the call from the women’s health center DRIV come from K2 – Eystein Husebye, Stian Knappskog, Camilla Krakstad, Stephanie Le Hellard and Helge Ræder. Congratulations!

In order to maintain the fantastic research and teaching work (including supervision) at K2 and at the same time save money, we need to look at how we can help each other in a better and more effective way. We will therefore begin a mapping process of our technical staff, who constitute a huge resource at the institute we are completely dependent on. Without them, we would not have been able to carry out the research projects or the teaching that we do today. Over the past 10 years, the structure of the research groups at K2 has naturally changed a lot, so it becomes natural to look at it. To begin with, we will send out questionnaires to our technicians to get an overview of the skills, capacity, wishes etc. We will inform everyone on an ongoing basis about where we are in the process.

Have a great weekend!

The Norwegian Directorate of Health comes for an inspection – be prepared

The Norwegian Directorate of Health has notified an audit pursuant to the Gene Technology Act at the Faculty of Medicine, 10-12 September this year. In preparation for the audit, research group leders must submit documentation by August 29 in accordance with the following points

  1. Ongoing projects that have been applied for approval according to GMO (Brief overview of ongoing work with GMOs)
  2. Overview of ongoing GMO projects that have not been applied for approval
  3. List of persons who can be interviewed during the audit
  4. Which rooms (Room number) are used for GMO work

Everyone should familiarise themselves with this page of the HSE Handbook: 4.4. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – HSE at K2 (uib.no)

For the daily work in the laboratory, there are four things you have to deal with:

  1. That laboratories and facilities are approved for work with GMOs.
  2. That there is a notification/approval for the work you are performing. The notification/approval must include a pre-assessment (risk assessment) of the contained use. A link to the notification form for GMM can be found here.
  3. That the work is carried out in a safe manner. Each research group should have its own procedures for this work, based on its own risk assessment.
  4. That a journal is kept of the work, and must be able to be presented in the event of an inspection.

For all activities involving GMOs, the principles of good microbiological practice and the following principles of good safety and hygiene in the workplace apply.

For questions, contact Siv Lise Bedringsaas (siv.bedringaas@uib.no)

New Deputy Director of Research

Professor Kurt Hanevik takes over as the new deputy director for research at K2. Kurt is a specialist in infectious diseases. He also has experience from international humanitarian aid and global health. He defended his thesis on research on the long-term effects of the Giardia epidemic in and has continued research on diarrhoea and related disorders. His experience and expertise will constitute a good addition to the leadership at K2.

Have a good weekend when the time comes!

Regards
Eystein Husebye

Digital morning coffee with the rector

Dear all colleagues,

 The academic year is officially underway. On that occasion, I would like to welcome you to a new digital morning coffee to talk about what occupies the university leadership.Some of the topics will be the start of the semester and today’s student generation and UiB’s ambitions and challenges as an international university. 

It is also possible to submit questions in advance via this form. https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=17537491

The morning coffee takes place on Thursday 29 August at 09:00-09:30 on Zoom. Follow the link to participate: https://uib.zoom.us/j/64244074872?pwd=zBvwesafx5KROfaisebI5HjMzeaEKb.1

 The conversation is in Norwegian.

 Kind regards

Margareth Hagen, rector

Dear everyone,

I look forward to being back as (this time not just acting) head of K2! I started on July 1st and have an office on the 8th floor of the lab building. I know that this will be a challenging job and I will have to make some decisions that may not be so popular, but as everyone has noticed, K2 is in a very precarious financial situation so that we have to make changes to get back into balance. I am grateful for any suggestions and input you can provide. I will not make the decisions all alone, with me in the leadership of K2 continue Eystein Husebye as deputy director, Silje Skrede as head of innovation and Mia Holmaas as head of administration, and Camilla Tøndel is the new head of teaching. Many thanks to Mette Vesterhus for her brilliant efforts as head of teaching in recent years and Silje Skrede as acting head of teaching in recent months! I still need a new head of research, but I am working on it.

My goal is to have K2 as a place where people thrive and like to work, where you feel heard, seen and valued, and where you also have the infrastructure to be able to conduct clinical, translational and experimental research of high quality. I know that I am responsible for fantastic researchers, teachers, technicians and administrative supporters and not least students for the next 4 years, and together we will make it happen!