Innovation was one of the topics discussed at the spring’s strategy meeting. In collaboration with the The Department of Biomedicine, we follow up on the matter with a joint seminar on Innovation and biotechnology. May 11^th, Professor Ulf Landgren from Uppsala University will hold two seminars on “Innovation and biotechnology” and “Molecular tools for high performance analyzes of proteins and nucleic acids”, the latter is held as a BBB-seminar. It also gives the opportunity to speak with Landgren in smaller groups.

Ulf Landgren delivers a number of inventions that are commercialized successfully, including Padlock method for amplification of DNA and “proximity ligation” that provides ultra-sensitive detection of molecules. The latter method led to the creation of the company OLink (www.olink.com).

Mark the day in your calendar already now

Good innovative weekend

Eystein

We’ve already had one round of allocation of funding (Smådriftsmidler) this year, but there is still money left. Therefore, there will be a second round of allocations. The same criteria apply also this time.

Criteria and requirements

• The leader of the research group must apply, and the purpose must be discussed and prioritized within the research group.
• It must be documented that the group has applied for other external research funding in 2016.
• Appropriations shall be annual and used during the budget year. The funds are not transferable to the next year.
• 
Funding will be allocated to research groups that do not have large appropriations already.
• The research group must document how the funds will be used.

A research project can receive up to 150,000 NOK per year. Researchers who have been awarded this amount in the recently completed round, cannot apply for more, while researchers with less funding, can apply again. Although an applicant in the same research group has received money, it is an opportunity for another within the same group to apply, but the same project can get maximum 150,000 NOK.

Application form are available here.
Send the application to Siv Eggereide.

The deadline is 1 April (and that’s not a joke!).

The soccer team Rosenborg’s famous coach Nils Arne Eggen launched in his time the “Good Foot-Theory”. According to his theory we must “play each other better.” Nobel Laureate May-Britt Moser subsequently repeated his point in a research context. Unfortunately, it seems that the culture within the more competitive levels of academia goes in the opposite direction, at least if we are to believe a recent article in The Guardian. In this article, immunologist Lemaitre shares his reflections after his mentor Jules Hoffman received the Nobel Prize in 2011 for a discovery Lemaitre himself claims he was behind. He writes that “Reaching the top of the scientific hierarchy increasingly depends on a glittering media profile, publishing in “trophy journals” and cultivating a network of academic frenemies who are treated as close allies until they become obstacles in the path to academic glory”. He further writes that this narcissistic behaviour could eventually affect the objectivity of scientific research. He concludes by saying that “When you do a collective project with a narcissist at the end he has the feeling that he has done everything.” Such a culture is totally unacceptable and should be discouraged. One way to counter such a culture is to reward seniors who promotes their juniors’ career, for example by organizing their research activities so that their junior researcher develop independence and get their rightful last authorships without creating conflicts of interest. Today´s system credit the senior scientists for the numbers of doctoral students receiving their PhD. I hope we could also credit senior researchers´ ability to lift juniors to leading positions, both within and outside academia. To this end, the senior scientists would need to pass on some niches of their own research field and some potential last authorships to their junior group members. In return, the career progression for former junior group members should stand out in the senior´s CV, both at salary discussions, in applications for UiB scholarships and post-doctoral positions and in research applications. As it says in the Holy Bible, “for whatever one sows, that will he also reap”.

Helge

University of Bergen got a new faculty on January 1st 2017 . The offcial name is Faculty of arts, music and design. It consist of the former Bergen National Academy of the Arts and the Greig Academy. The main purpose of the new faculty is education, artistic development, research and dissemination of art, music and design.

It’s just appointed a faculty director of the new faculty. It’s a person we here at K2 know well. Check who it is here.

Why does the the new faculty affect us at K2? For several reasons. Firstly because music and art has the potential to be used as a part of patient care, or to improve patients’ quality of life. Secondly, because art and design can be used to enhance both research applications and articles. Whether it concerns an application or a publication wishes to sell a message, and the phrase ”a picture tells a thousand words” is still valid. Thirdly, by working with people who are good in the audiovisual expression, we can better dissemination which is one of our main tasks, whether it involves the disclosure of our business in general or procurement of an application. Finally, we must be immodest enough to say maybe we can add something to the new faculty.

There is an increasing requirement to provide funds from externally. To do that, we need to think outside the box. One way is to seek cooperation with the people at the new Facutly of Arts from the points mentioned above.

Per

Teaching is one of our core activities and we want it to be given good education at K2. Pedagogical skills will be emphasized when recruting academic positions and salary negotiation.

Conversion to Medicine in 2015 an enormous boost, thanks to everyone who helps out in both in semester boards and as educators and administrators! Also thanks to those who are Department mentors for students in early practice (this is where we can lay the foundation for an interest in Our own Field and emerge as good role models) as well as those who have taken on the leadership of their own mentor Groups.

Teaching the new curriculum be restructured from substantial traditional cathedral lectures to considerably more varied and student activating teaching methods.

Are you familiar with educational activities / principles PBL, TBL, flipped classroom or case-based teaching? Otherwise, I recommend educational foundation or any of the other courses at educational Department UiB (for example: Hot Moments in Teaching and Learning). Lectures will of course not be abolished but it has been shown that VARIETY in educational activities promote learning and that different teaching methods should be “tailored” to the kind of skill that must be learned. Then comes the concept of learning. Once it’s clear to us what we want the student to learn with the teaching tools at your disposal can then choose the best teaching Method.

At this year’s Teaching Price (NOK 50,000!), We want to honor an educator or an educational environment that has shown great interest in implementing new teaching; New study with other education than we have had in the past, new teaching methods, developed new courses (for example elective courses); Thus INNOVATION in education.
I would like to have nominated candidates, send reasoned proposals for me on jone.trovik@med.uib.no within March 10th!

Multiple Choice Database (MCQ) is being established, we have started testing data solution. It’s only for all educators to initiate to create tasks from their individual topics: a small case history with one more question and four alternative answers there ONE answer should  clearly be the best. We must add validation / comment for at least one of the available options. If each of us makes A puzzle of each lecture / group we teach the database will be kept up in volume. Questions should be validated by another teacher than yourself and happily send it to a student (who have finished the current installment) or a newly appointed assistant doctor who can ensure that the questions are relevant to the target group of students (and not just for the enthusiast professors …). Good luck!

And remember Teaching Day 27th April!

Jone

Also this year K2 is going to have a process for support to those applying for NFR grants. The schedule for the internal process at K2’s here and should be read by anyone applying through K2. Note that the internal K2 deadline to submit a draft of 1-2 pages is February 24th for those who plan to apply for the NFR programs BEHANDLING and BEDRE HELSE. The corresponding deadline for other NFR programs is March 10th. Those who comply with these deadlines will be given priority in the K2 internal review process led by Ola Myklebost. One gets the opportunity to present the draft in plenary and get constructive feedback from experienced colleagues which is useful in the preparation of the full protocol. Furthermore, one gets prioritized to support from our research advisors and budgetary assistance from the economic section at K2.

As Eystein wrote in last week’s editorial, it’s not enough with just good ideas. The presentation of the protocol and how to solve the problem you’ve outlined, is important to reach up in the application competition. Our reasearch advisers, Itana and Amra, are ready to help, but it goes without saying that there must be priorities in their use. Eystein will be the prioritizer. This means the inquiry about the help from Itana and Amra, will have to go through him.

The K2 internal deadlines are just around the corner, but the advantage with them is that one is forced to start already now and not wait until right before the NFR deadline. Conclusion: If you inted to apply for NFR this spring, check the schedule and start now. It can pay off!

Per

Spring will soon stand at the door which means new application opportunities, both for the research council and other organizations as the Cancer Society and Extra Foundation. In addition to FRIMEDBIO Research Council has a number of announcements second announcements, including subprograms TREATMENT and HEALTH that may be relevant for the K2 researchers (deadline 26/04/2017) The Department is now concentrating considerable resources on research support including through the appointment of our new research advisers itane and from April Amra Grudic-Feta. They will be key in the application processes during spring. As dashboard displays makes K2 makes it uniformly good although it goes a bit up and down – but we can always reach us anymore. Biomedicine Hanks in 5 new multiannual projects FRIMEDBIO in 2016, something we may have ambitions to copy.

* 3 Extensions

The recent review of the applications for small operational funds revealed that application activity could have been better and some does’t revice the small operational funds because they do not seek it elsewhere. With the limitations in the allocation of the size we had not enough applications to distribute all the funds and it is probably one application round Number 2 later this year. There came no applications from department staff outside Haukeland Campus which possibly means that they are very satisfied or may not read K2news.

Therefore, it is also this year

• Sketch Plenary discussions
• Budgeting Help from the administration
• Printing Support from both research advisors and experienced colleagues

To take part in these “support services” it is necessary that applicants comply with deadlines. Participation is also an excellent opportunity to get tested and improved own ideas and help others to improve their applications. To reach up to competition required not only creative ideas, but often also a broad and multi-disciplinary approach to the problem one will resolve and good plans for dissemination and research training. All this can get input and ideas in a structured process where everyone helps each other.

Dear everyone. Medicine 2015 progresses and we will keep the ‘pressure’ up to improve our educational expertise and offerings

We are fortunate to have a dedicated educator affiliated medical faculty: Monika Kvernenes. She helps us to find out what each of us want of further concrete offer educational expertise. It is therefore sent out a mapping survey. If you answer it, we can create personalized programs, isn’t it great? We hope as many as possible answers the mail sent on January 18th, check in your inbox.

April 27th is this springs teaching day. This is a forum with the possibility of concrete practical refills respect teaching. We have started working with Medical Multiple Choice Database for UiB. Hans Flaatten will show us how far this has come, how taxonomy (categorization) heal up and how we can take advantage of My UiB versus Inspera to save / import duties

He has extensive experience in the use of MCQ both the exam but also as “teaser” before the actual teaching ( “Quiz”).

OSCE; Objective Structured Clinical Exam for 3rd year students were piloted for the second time 4th of May. A sample (about 50 160 students) will be offered to participate. Ketil Grong heads the OSCE Committee (thanks for the great efforts here Ketil!) And is now asking for specific contacts of each semester (1 empty 6th semester) to clarify what is taught by current skills suitable for testing examination.

On the teaching day we will review how OSCE work and then go ahead and plan what might be appropriate jobs for the next step OSCE (end exam 12th semester). Skill Centre’s role both to provide skills training but also use the OSCE will be discussed.

We organize offers of clinical practice differently to different departments. At Stavanger University Hospital, they used a systematic program of practice supervisors who highly valued by students. Ragnar Sande will tell about how they have achieved such success.

Can we get better at recognizing and motivating clinicians in teaching work

“Clinical teacher” is a term used by some medical faculty / medical schools. This may involve a formal (albeit unpaid) adjacent to the faculty that gives merit respect any later university employment and access to some university benefits such as access to journal / web resources, training / cultural offerings, participation in educational / other universities courses. If you have suggestions for what can be content in such a clinical instructor / teaching remuneration takes educational officer K2 (jone.trovik@med.uib.no) welcome suggestions.

Jone

The K2 economic report for 2016 is now ready. The main figures for the annuum account are shown here. The overall result was a surplus of about NOK 1.6 million. This was achieved mainly through increased revenue and slightly lower salary costs than budgeted. Before people are now starting to suggest good causes on which the money could be spent, it should be mentioned that this is restricted money. However, most important for K2 is that we are rid of the debt and have a healthy economy.

The second tableof interest relates to the so-called BOA-economy and shows how much external funding the research groups have obtained. We budgeted NOK 79 millions, while the final result showed NOK 83.5 million. About one third of this amount came from NFR and about 10% from the EU. The amount “annen bidragsaktivitet” comprises mainly funding from The Norwegian Cancer Society, “gaveforsterkning” and various foundations. I am pleased to see that we overachieved as to external funding. Alternatively, we were not ambitious enough while budgeting. I think the potential for increasing the BOA activity is great.

The economic situation for K2 implies that for the first time in several years we will not reduce the number of faculty positions next year. I will come back to that

Per

From Bench to Business

 How should scientists at the Department of Clinical Science improve innovation of their research? This was the topic of one of the panel debates at the strategy meeting last week with panelists from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Bergen technology transfer office (BTO) and the Department , and with research group leaders in the audience. Prime Minister Erna Solberg has previously said that our country needs more suppliers to the National budget – not more companies and institutions living on the National budget. She asked for more innovation once again in her New Year speech where she also pointed to BerGenBio as a successful example of research-driven innovation at our faculty.
K2 aims to increase innovation in the present strategy period, and point number one is to establish an innovation strategy for K2 this Spring.
I will head an advisory group for the innovation strategy which subsequently will be discussed at the Department Board in the Spring. I therefore  ask for input from you, both to the group’s composition and to the elements we should include in this strategy. As an example I already received a proposition of speed-dates between researchers at the Department and economists at NHH. The proposed idea was to pair scientists with entrepreneurs to increase the success rate. Prof. Tor Andreassen at NHH pointed to the entrepeneurship challenges at the strategy seminar: The entrepreneur should, in addition to developing increased customer and marketing understanding and investor relations also withstand being poor, work 80-hour weeks, travel up to 200 travel days, make difficult decisions, live with risk, move quickly and adapt continuously. Since researchers also lead or participate actively in a research group, we certainly require good helpers on the team if we also aim for innovation. Perhaps the way to go may be to build a bridge between K2 and the environments in Sandviken – or with other environments in Bergen aimed at innovation, including Innovation Norway and the new Mohn Center for Innovation and Regional Development at the Bergen University College.

I would like to hear from you if you have input.

 Helge

Christmas is coming and it is time for a brief review of 2016. For K2 this year has been marked by ups and downs. The undoubtedly greatest downturn was Helga’s death in January. It affected all of us and shows that we are all vulnerable and that we in work and competition for applications, excellent publications and better teaching, must remember to take care of each other.

There have been several upturns in 2016. We have had 26 PhD dissertations. This is more than a quarter of all PhD dissertations at the faculty. Currently, K2 has 147 candidates in the PhD program which represents almost a third of all MOF candidates in this program. Regarding publication activity it is a bit early to say how things have gone this year. I will come back to this upon the new-year. The new curriculum in medicine is well underway although much work remains. On pharmaceuticals there were admitted a record number of students this year, a full 44 which is a near doubling of the previous year’s number. The economy of K2 is recovered and we are going over in 2017 with a surplus. The BOA economy reached the budgeted estimate of 80 million kroners. Fortunately, there are many research groups behind this number. It should also be noted that K2 obtained a new Jebsen Center this year, to Eystein Husebye and his research group.

K2 has now in place a new strategy plan for the three year period 2016-18. It is a mere one page and should be easy to read. Several targets have been reached even if there is any left.

I would like to thank everyone for their efforts in 2016. Special thanks to our professor emeritus who make a great effort as Custos of the PhD defenses and also contribute to the publication number.

Merry Christmas! Per

Well, then you must at least apply, and this year the application deadline is January 13th!

The intention of small assets (SMÅFORSK) is to support grouos that doesn’t have major funding, to enable them to start new pojects. SMÅFORSK is a joint funding from the NRC and UiB and it has to be used the year it’s granted. Applicants can ask for coverage for travles, seminars, courses, material, technical and administrative assistance and outher operating expenses. In line withthe intentions, it’s a requirement that the applicant is permanent, active researcher at the Department of Clinical Science. The Department management will emphasize that the applicants have Applied for funding from other sources over the two last years.

Criteria and requirements:

• The research group by its leader is the applicant and the purpose must be discussed and prioritized within the research group.
• It must be documented that the group has applied for other external research funding in 2016
• The funding is for one year and have to be used within the Budget year, as the funds are not transferable to the next year.
• The funds will be granted to reseach groups that hasn’t had any lage assets already.
• Documentation on how the funds will be spent must be presented.

Don’t do like he in the parable of the talents that buried this. Use SMÅFORSK to invest in lager future grants.

Good luck !

The Reseach Committee at the Department of Clinical Science allocates funds at the next meeting. Fill in the apllication forms and send them to Siv Johnsen Eggereide

Application form

Deadline: January 13th 2017

Eystein Husebye
Deputy Manager

At the last HSE seminar this was a topic for discussion, and those of us who were present got a good introduction to why and how.

All employees (permanent, temporary, PhD-fellows but not students) are entitled to annual employee appraisals.

This applies regardless of whether a UiB employe is on a full- or part-time position, if one has the main or secondary workspace. (The same applies for a Helse-Vest employee if one has such in their group, they have, however, their own electronic form).

Group leader is responsible for giving the option of employee appraisals to their employees. Department Manager is responsible for providing employee appraisals for group leaders and this has already been largely completed now late autumn.

What one wants to get out of such a conversation is a mutual clarification between manager and employee as regards to expectations for work, how to exploit / utilize competanse / personal resources, how work is perceived and further development / advice with respect to career planning for the employees.

This we believe is useful for both managers and employees?

(Clarification: This is not primarily forums for bargaining, it is done mainly through other channels). The conversation will be confidential and one make a short synopsis according to form available online in the University’s Director’s Handbook, and can be downloaded here:

https://cp.compendia.no/universitetet-i-bergen/lederhandbok/70154#openstep=70159
(only in Norwegian)

There are three different forms according to employee group but in principle they are very similar. It is useful for both parties to look through the forms before the meeting is held.

Generally, it is recommended that there are no supervisors who has employee appraisal with PhD-fellows. If they wish they should be able to talk to someone else. Hopefully the “second in command” in our organizational units can take over the employee appraisal function when such factors are present?

Emphasis should be on constructive dialogue, ie focus on things that can actually be improved or adapted. Those needing a humorous look at how to NOT imagine the mapping of a performance employee appraisal can view attached whining notification form, found in the Administration Department of Research at Stavanger University Hospital: Click here!
(only in Norwegian)

Good Advent!

Jone

The medical curriculum holds that it is mandatory for the students to write a pre master’s thesis. In 2015, altogether 124 pre master’s theses were completed. Of these, 105 were written with supervision from researchers affiliated to K1 or K2. K2 contributed with 51 and K1 with 54 of the pre master’s theses. This says that students choose tasks that are clinically related. For K1 and K2 this implies opportunities for recruitment to subsequent research and also to the specific clinical fields of medicine. There are several examples that the recruitment into research has gone through a pre master’s thesis. One gets the chance to evaluate whether this is a student with both the skills and the ambitions to do research. At the same time, post-docs and experienced PhD-fellows may have an opportunity to try their hands as supervisors.

In the new medical curriculum the pre master’s thesis will play a bigger role than in the old. The research groups that do not have a strategy to use the students and the resource they represent through pre master’s thesis, should consider this. Here lie possibilities that the research groups should exploit.

Per

Our five web editors are currently improving the websites of the Department of Science. Each of them has been assigned the 23 research group websites and also the platforms’ websites. Soon we will present the new research group websites, including the name of all group members with a direct link to the personal webpages for each group member. In this regard we need to update also the personal websites. In particular, we need you to include a picture of yourself and also create short research and teaching profile. Please update your page accordingly if you have not already done so.

You can log into your personal website using your UiB user name and password (“Log on” symbol top right), and then you gain access to a tab called “Edit” (top left). You can scroll down to “Picture” where you can upload a JPEG version of your picture. Moreover, you can scroll down to the “Research”, “Communication” and “Teaching” tabs and enter the relevant information. Research profile can be very short, I have written just three lines. Please also add a link to your Thesis if it is published electronically at Bora (Bergen Open Research Archive).  There is also a category called “Publications” and if you want something more than what CRIStin can offer, you could make a link to Google Scholar Citations (which also automatically updates) or equivalent websites. Please contact Irene (Irene.Hjelmaas@uib.no) if you need assistance or if you need help with the Picture.

Helge

In an ever sharper competition for research funding, it is important that the next generation of researchers have an opportunity to position themselves early. We as senior researchers should let the next generation forward. This includes giving them the opportunity of being main supervisors and last authors. It may include giving them the opportunity to show that they are independent researchers, by the seniors not being on the author list om publications. All these measures require that the next generation has actually contributed to the merits they then receive. The latter measure, that seniors refrain from co-authorship, is perhaps the most difficult. It impairs the senior’s own merit, thereby reducing his/her chances of success in subsequent applications. It is contrary to past practice. But it can give today’s young generation an increased opportunity of success.

An increased investment in the next generation also sets new requirements for departmental and faculty management. One cannot ask senior scientists to refrain from being main supervisor and last authors while at the same time, this is exactly how they are measured at for instance salary negotiations. Instead the faculty and institute managements should evaluate the senior scientists based on the total research and teaching output of the research group, and perhaps the number of papers from the research group at which the seniors do not have last authorship or are not mentioned at all. Alternatively, senior researchers should be evaluated based on other criteria such as how many of their PhD graduates who have managed to establish themselves as independent researchers. This is no simple matter, and all comments are welcomed!

Per

Departmental management visits Brussels at the time of writing to learn more about how the department of clinical sience can take part in the EU’s research funding. Not only can the EU money fund research – EU projects are always related to international cooperation, which builds important skills and quality of our projects. In addition to searching, you can sign up as an evaluator of EU applications. Some of our professors have done or are doing that, but more may join. Application evaluation provides valuable insight into how the EU works and will undoubtedly help the individual to improve their applications. This can also be a springboard to join the committees that establish the basis for future research programs so that our people can apply.

Most look for announcements in Health program under societal challenges. We got emphasized that one should also look at the other main programs where we as translational researchers can contribute. Moreover, we got a tour of European Research Counciil (ERC) its financing, primarily Starting, Consolidator and Advanced grants.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions is underused. They finance not only grants to individuals (Individual Fellowships, IF) for pulling out or invite researchers to Bergen. One can also apply for Innovative Training network (ITN) with participation from at least 3 different countries, Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) and Cofunding of existing regional, national, and international projects (http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/index_en.htm). In addition, funding of the research network (not the research itself) sought through COST Actions.

Our man in Brussels Kristof Vlaeminck (kristof.vlaeminck@uib.no) can assist with questions of all kinds. We will prepare a “tax returns” that can be sent Kristof about what you wish and what skills you possess so that he can sugest people from Norway for the relevant committees. Likewise, we, together with the research advisors at department of clinical sience work actively to make the application process easier for K2 researchers. Kristof is visiting UiB once per month and you can schedule meetings with him while he is in Bergen.

UiB’s office is strategically located in the middle of Brussels with similar office for SINTEF and NTNU in the same building and with writing space for visiting UiB researchers. UiB researchers can use conference room in the building for network meetings. NFR’s office in Brussel is 5 minutes away.

The management aims to significantly increase EU funding over the next two years. Writing EU applications is funnier than you think.

Clamgreetings from Brussels

Eystein

Dissemination implies to inform the public about research results beyond what is published in scientific journals. Dissemination is one of the main tasks of the University of Bergen, and was a topic at the university management conference last week.

Why is dissemination important? In addition to being a requirement from the authorities, dissemination is important to democracy. This may seem pompous, but in the complicated world of today it is increasingly important to inform both politicians and voters as much as possible. As scientists we can contribute in this aspect.

Dissemination may promote citation of scientific publications as well as improving chances of success in research applications. It is a requirement that applications must include a plan for dissemination. It is no longer enough to state that scientific results will be published in patient journals and in the press. Being able to demonstrate that dissemination already takes place contributes to the credibility of the dissemination plan in the next research application.

Dissemination may help to obtain good applicants for advertised PhD and postdocs and research positions.  The Dean has pointed out that dissemination should be a factor included in the salary assessments of the academic staff.

At MOF we are fortunate to have Marion Solheim who can help with dissemination. Marion is a journalist and is worth more than the rest of the communication department at UiB combined. I will call upon you to put dissemination on the agenda of the research groups. Do not hesitate to contact Marion if you need help as to dissemination.

Per

To those who participated in this years teaching day for K1 and K2: thanks for the good cooperation and fruitful participation with questions, comments and discussion.
To those who weren’t present, here are some key points, including examples of how to make multiple choice tasks.

AMEE (Assocation for Medical Education) arranges an annual international major cogress on Medical education, this year in Bacelona, and next autumn in Helsinki. One can participate to get inspiration for their own teaching (there are lectures, seminars and workshops) and one can happily present their own educatinal project.

MittUiB (where we can post lectures/handouts quizzes etc.) try to do this one for the students: The file Storage will NOT be avaliable to them, which is the place where only we upload our presentations. Each course in one semester has its’ Module (excl. Obstetrics, Gynecology, Gynecologic Oncology each module in the current MEDFØD), where it’s made avaliable to the students to use for the current term. For more explanation, click here and if you log in to MittUiB you’ll find MOFKURS2016 with courses on Canvas (which is the actual name of the program).

The lecture on evidence of eLearning by Rune Haagensen OUS showed good examples from Helse-Bergen (and the bad ones from OUS,  talk about the Public courtship…) but the pointed out that this is useful if used in the right context, adapted to the target and as part of multimodal teaching, Learning multichannel delivers more Power than just one Method (example: lectureing alone)

Tobias Slørdahl from NTNU taught about multiple choice that we recommend for all exams (60% of the entire examination, rest short questions = essays) and that it is to be used for upcoming national exam (common to all our Faculty of Medicine). For each task we produce here from UiB we can pick out a task from common question bank (Return of 100%!). If all lecturers stock five tasks to the exam which will be held in their course  in the autumn we will have a good beginning for next year’s exam! Hans Flaatten (K1) managed startup “Bergen Bank”, he will be contacting exam responsibles for each deposit. We will also need their own “peer review” undergoing new made questions.

How should a good multiple choice questions be? It should have a brief but necessary introduction, like to patients history (age, gender, where there problem is) with relevant information (symptoms / findings) and then a question as a whole sentence. Create four approximately equal length answer option where one answer should clearly be the best. Correct answer gives 1 point, wrong answers / no answer gives 0 points. Calculate 2 minutes per question, so you can see how many tasks needed for 60% of the exam time, students have at their disposal. Link to Slørdal presentation can be found here.

Here is an example of multiple choice questions:

53 year old man, a professor at K2, did not participate at the Education Day at VilVite autum 2016. What is the most acceptable explanation for the absence?

A He on autumn holiday with the Family,  the trip was booked a long time ago and this was resolved administratively.

B He is against changing the curriculum and will leave everything practical respect MittUiB to study administration.

C. He attended the day of instruction two years ago and did not think he should participate until next year.

D He is a natural talent for teaching as well as research and fagmedisin, need no new teaching impulses.

Luckily everyone gets another chance in the spring, and then it’s not autumn holiday … Studies (me) welcomes suggested topics to be clarified

Jone

It’s time to register and / or update your external work. The University Board has decided that all employees at UiB, regardless of the job category and position fraction shall register the tasks they have outside of UiB. The intention is that there should be full transparency both for people both inside and outside UiB about employees’ potential links. The list of external work is therefore publicly available.

It is emphasized that it is entirely legitimate and also desiraable that UiB employees have external work. But all external work is to be registered. You do the registration in Paga.

What external work should be registered? Read the manual here

As one of the largest departments at UiB, K2’s cards are often looked at. Last year we were checked in terms of the number of K2 employees who had registered their external work.
Many had not done this. This year there is a clear order that this is happening. I therefore expect that everyone registers their external work within October 21st at 4:00 PM.
It’s easy to do and takes most of us under 15 minutes. For those who do not have external work to register, send an email to Ingvild with the following text. “I have no external work”

If you are in doubt about the registration of external work, contact Julie
(NB: Read the instructions first!)

Per

At the start of next year, a centralized storage of biomaterial at -80C and colder is planned in Marie Joys House (MJH). Here remote freezers needs be placed, and the majority of the biomaterial should be stored here.
The remaining biomaterial may be stored in local freezers, especially material which is in frequent use. Since the need for freezer capacity is increasing and soon increasing beyond the present capacity, we will now be starting the process of establishing local freezers and remote freezers. We will work through the established Floor responsible people (Etasjekontakter) in the Lab building and in the Obstetrics Department and Pediatrics Department to assemble an overview of freezers (-80C and colder including liquid nitrogen storage) including number and owners and users of each freezer.

We encourage the owners of freezers/biobanks already now to begin sorting their material based on storage in either local freezers or in remote freezers. There are several ways to solve this, for example by redefining the ownership to the freezers in each floor so that the owners jointly manage both local freezers and remote freezers, but we welcome alternative suggestions. The goal is that some of freezers in in Lab building and in the Obstetrics Department and Pediatrics Department must be moved to MJH to operate as remote freezers there.

Helge

There is an increasing focus in both the EU and the Norwegian authorities on innovation and commercialization of research results. Increased cooperation between academia and industry are in demand, particularly cooperation with the so-called SMEs (Small Medium sized Enterprises), ie small and medium enterprises. The reason is increased activity among small and medium-sized enterprises are a mainstay to relaunch the economy.
For many in academia are collaborating with industry a somewhat strange idea. People have  come to me and said that this threatens the free research. I think that we should look at this as an opportunity, not only to think in new research projects and implementation of studies, but also financing the research. Also Norwegian industry is increasingly interested in research. The number of companies that has applied NFR for research funding has doubled in two years, and the increase is strongest in Rogaland and Hordaland.
They are many Research environments in K2 that should be of interest to the industry, not only because of the topics we are researching, but also because of the expertise we sit on when it comes to doing research.
One challenge is to create contact with small and medium enterprises. Kine Gregersen from BTO will be on K2 every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month and will help contact as recently featured in an email. Maybe K2 in addition would create a meeting place with the industri?
As an example of the Norwegian authorities’ interest in innovation will eventually mentioned that NFR “will stimulate health industry”

Per

Emphasis new guidelines for research grants funded by both Samarbeidsorganet and The Recearch Council of Norway. Scientific quality is still an important criterion in the evaluation of the applications, but now the patent shall benefit and health services added as much weight. The last point demonstrate the need and importance of new knowledge and innovation potential in the short and long term. In other words, high quality or high benefit alone is not enough to reach the competition for funds.

The desire for patients to initiate research and that research results quickly, will be implemented in the clinic is understandable, but a unilateral focus on this may have negative aspects. Applicants may steer away from ambitious high-risk projects that aim to address the more fundamental issues at the expense of the “low-hanging fruits” that investigate whether diet A gives slightly lower long-term blood sugar than diet B. Persistence is important. It takes a long time to build up good Research environments, and establishing infrastructure such as patient records, equipment platforms and a powerful Research Group.

Nevertheless, this trend is something we have to deal with. When we write applications it is  important to think in an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional way to attack a problem from many different angles. Here are user intervention, regional and national cooperatives important points. To help our recearchers, we now strengthen the  Research advice on K2. MOFs research advisor Itane Sloper-Krivokapić will have office hours four days a week at K2 on the 8th floor. In addition, we will also employ a researchadvisor this fall. . Bergen technology transfer (BTO) will be present at K2 every other Tuesday, and will be able to advise on how to write innovation into applications. In addition, Samarbeidsorganet has established a resource center for innovation that can help to implement research findings in the clinic.

All of this will hopefully lead to New excellent research projects With good fundings at K2.

Eystein

On Tuesday this week MOF  had a visit by Dr. Hiroshi Matsumoto who is UiB’s representative in Japan and associated Innovation Norway Tokyo at the Norwegian embassy in Japan. He will work to promote research cooperation between Norway and Japan. He held a presentation for the head of the deparments at MOF and the Faculty management. The presentation can be found here. Matsumoto indicated that Japan is interested in a research collaboration with the Nordic countries. One of the reasons for Japan to focus on the Nordic countries is the combination of different population registries and biobanks that exist here. He drew particular highlight to three areas. One is geriatric research. Japan is among the countries that have come furthest on geriatric and investing heavily in this field especially connected with informasjonssteknologi and robotics. The second is generation studies and the third field he particularly pointed out is stem cell research.

On all three of these areas is the research on K2.

For research groups that would be interested in the above can be cited SIU’s Explore program for cooperation with countries outside the EU: Current project can be supported by up to 300 000 NOK spread over two (2) years. Overall framework for the program is NOK 5 million. Deadline October 17, 2016. See more information here.

Per

With the new curriculum (Medicine 2015) entering into full bloom, we may notice some pain during this transition.

This week last year’s “greenhorns” (read: first-year medical students who had stayed two days at the department during spring term), started to bloom, now with orange name-tags. During this stay their main goal was to follow at least two patients through the treatment chain; from referral from primary care throughout their examinations /treatment during hospital-stay, which personnel were involved and how was the collaboration between primary and secondary health-care? These students have been present in their respective departments throughout four days and this time possibly in addition to older students who by the “old” curriculum are supposed to learn the explicit technical diagnostics and procedures taught in their specific semester. We all need to keep track of which of these students could / should attend what.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to providing all categories of students with good learning opportunities!

More changes: The Skills Centre (Ferdighetssenteret) which has been spread at three different locations in Sentralblokken is almost finalized, now located at the 1st floor of BBB. This centre will be a great venue for our students to practice skill training; from blood pressure measurement and bladder catheterization, via cardiopulmonary resuscitation to complex emergency courses. We are upgrading the equipment and now it is the responsibility of the different semester boards to plan the teaching that should be implemented at the Skills Centre.

The centre is also designed to accommodate OSCE examination (Objective Structured Clinical Exam), where students are tested in practical skills (procedures or patient communication). Such examination takes place at the end of the third and sixth year of their medical study. All the practice students receive at different departments will prepare them for these exams!

Integrated education, where basic medicine and specific medical specialty teachers contribute together will be an exciting challenge in the new curriculum. TBL (team based learning) is a student activating teaching method which among others will be demonstrated during the Teaching Day 2016 on 12^th of October. There, we also will be given the opportunity to learn how to develop proper multiple choice questions (MCQs) aiming to test the students’ theoretical knowledge in an appropriate manner.

All teachers are welcomed to attend the Teaching Day 12.10! A final reminder: we all want to meet tidy, clean classrooms, especially when we bring patients along. We will (via the faculty study section) remind the students of their responsibility to tidy up after lectures. (Empty coffee mugs or water bottles should be removed and drinking is never a student activity when a patient is present, whether in the auditorium or consulting rooms). Maybe we need to define a specific student from each class as the “busboy”? But we as lecturers should aid by removing excess teaching materials such as surplus handouts when we leave the auditorium or classroom.

And please; do not use a permanent marker on anything else than whiteboards, they cannot be removed from projector screens…

It is time for the annual employee appraisal. All employees at K2 have the right to have an annual appraisal with a supervisor at the department. The appraisal is important, primarily for the individual who has the opportunity to take up current issues related to his/her work situation as well as topics such as skills upgrading and career. The supervisor has the opportunity to follow up on the individual’s work and matters relating to it. Hopefully the appraisal will help enhancing the working environment at K2. In practical terms, I will have appraisals with all the leaders of the research groups at K2 and all scientists engaged in full positions. Each research group leader will not necessarily personally have an appraisal with every member of his/her group, but should make sure that the members of the group are offered an appraisal. The plan is that everybody at K2 should have been offered an appraisal during the autumn.

Per

It is common to think that the end product of a research project are the publications that come out of the project. Many would add that the popular scientific dissemination of the project results is also part the end product: dissemination provides added value of the project results by demonstrating their utility to the society.

Innovation may also contribute to added value and increased society benefit. Commercialization of a research project is to move from possibility to reality: to offer new diagnostics and therapies to the society, not only lay the their foundation. Innovation is like research a creative process, but with a slightly different focus more geared towards market-oriented application. Both the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Vest) and the ERC funding institutions evaluate the innovation potential of a project in the funding application processes, and the Western Norway Regional Health Authority also awards an Innovation Prize.

The Department of Clinical Science (K2) wants to strengthen innovation at the Department by setting goals for innovation in the strategic plan, but also through an established partnership with Bergen Technology Transfer Office (BTO) where a counselor from BTO, Kine Gregersen, will be available in the K2 expedition in the 8th floor every 2. and 4th Tuesday of the month. We hope you find an opportunity to reach out to her. Conversely, she will actively try to find an opportunity to consult with someone in your research group. Please embrace such an initiative if you do not take action yourself, it can pay off!

Helge Ræder

Well belated summer! I hope everyone got to recharge their batteries and are now ready for the autumn. The editorial that was issued just before the summer dealt with K2’s new strategy document and it stated that we would use it actively in our efforts to enhance K2. The strategy document concerns us all and you can find it here if you need to freshen it up. The K2 management will have a particular focus on the following issues in the strategy document this fall: Recruitment, publication activity, use of MittUiB, Canvas and Inspera and financial reporting. We will come back to these issues in future editorials. When it comes to recruitment, the following should be noted: The K2 economy is now balanced, and in the next few years there are some natural age retirements. This opens opportunities for strategic recruitment.

Øystein Bruserud was the head of the Recruitment committee, who recommended that when recruiting after retirement we should check first that the teaching requirements within that particular field is covered. Then the vacant position should be advertised as broad as possible to ensure the best possible recruitment. I think these are good thoughts.

To be continued.

Per