The annual Teaching Day was successfully conducted on May 19^th in collaboration between K2 and K1, with good attendance. I want to thank all of you who contributed to making this into a great day!

Heiko Bratke

The K2 Teaching Prize was awarded to Heiko Bratke at section for pediatrics at Haugesund Hospital. He was awarded the prize for developing a well-structured digital educational content in MittUiB during the pandemic.

Åse Bjorvatn Sævik

PhD-student Åse Bjorvatn Sævik from the Endocrinology group was awarded one of the Faculty’s teaching prizes for developing the podcast “Endopodden” as a teaching tool. This project was also selected for nomination to the UGLE prize.

Monika Kvernenes from Unit for learning also received a teaching prize from the Faculty. Monika has since 2015 worked strategically with the aim of improving teaching skills amongst teachers and lecturers at the Faculty of Medicine. At the Teaching Day, she told us about the need for basic training in teaching and how to document teaching skills end experience, a requirement which is now being reinforced.

The recent UGLE meeting discussed the organization of teaching. Vestlandslegen is being planned and will likely replace MED2015 as a programme encompassing both students who will remain in Bergen throughout their study period as well as students who will have their first 3 years in Bergen followed by 3 years in Stavanger, Haugesund or Førde.The number of students is estimated to surpass 300 over time for years 1-3.

When student numbers increase, we need to be smart. One smart move is to involve student as teachers. K2 recently attracted “corona money” dedicated to positions for students either as teachers at several courses or as “digital assistants” to assist us all in digital teaching activities.

OSCE 6 and 12 are ongoing – a great thank you to all of you (administrative staff as well as teaching staff) who make a huge effort to make this happen! Good luck with the last efforts – end of term and summer vacation are beckoning!

The Research Council of Norway has now introduced a portfolio management model which means that investments are structured along fewer and more coordinated areas with their own portfolio boards. Each portfolio board has prepared a preliminary portfolio plan which forms the basis for the Research Council’s total investments within its area. These plans were prepared on the basis of existing program plans. These plans will now be revised.

The HEALTH portfolio comprises a wide range of research and innovation projects, from outstanding open research on the international front via applied research to meet societal challenges, to research and innovation for the development of a competitive health industry.

The Faculty of Medicine is invited to provide input to the portfolio plan through two input phases:

Input phase 1 – The knowledge base

In the first input phase, the purpose is to capture trends that are important as a knowledge base for the plan. A dialogue meeting has been held with the Faculty of Medicine. The challenges were:

1. Which trends in society and research constitute a particularly important knowledge base for the portfolio plan for health?
2. What are the most important societal challenges the portfolio plan for health must help to meet?
3. What do questions 1 and 2 entail for prioritizing research topics, subjects and type of research / innovation?

K2 invited the research group leaders some weeks ago to provide input, and we have collected these and forwarded them to the Faculty. The result was that the Faculty out forward the following:

1. Personalized medicine
2. Global Health
3. Research in the primary health care service

Input phase 2 – Draft portfolio plan

The second input phase is an online hearing in December 2021 where the Research Council invites everyone who is interested to provide input to the portfolio plan. After this input phase, the portfolio plan will be presented to the portfolio board and later for approval by the Research Council’s board in June 2022.

For information, there is a preliminary portfolio plan on the Research Council’s website for the portfolio, Porteføljeplan for Helse (forskningsradet.no)

Enjoy the week-end!

Eystein is moving – he wishes everyone a beautiful weekend!

The Government’s long-term plan for research and higher education is an important, strategic tool in knowledge policy. The current long-term plan will now be revised. See here for more info about the long-term plan:

https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/forskning/innsiktsartikler/langtidsplan-for-forskning-og-hoyere-utdanning2/id2615974/

In connection with the audit, the UiB management has requested input from the faculties in two rounds:

Round 1:

The first round of input for UiB’s part is a dialogue meeting between the UiB management and KD on May 28 2021. In connection with this, the Rector has requested short and general input from the faculties. Due to a very short deadline, the K2 management has in a separate email asked the research group leaders for help in answering the following questions:

What is the most prominent development feature in the faculties’ research / fields?

Answers are requested to be sent to Silke Appel by Tuesday 25 May at 08. K2 makes a comprehensive answer which is sent to the faculty.

Round 2:

In the next round, the faculties will provide input to UiB centrally on the three questions below. These answers should be more comprehensive than those given in the first round. The research group leaders will receive a separate email about this, but K2 asks everyone to submit suggestions for answers to the research group leaders to the questions:

1. What is the most prominent development feature in the faculties’ research / fields (same as above)?
2. What is the challenge of the thematic areas in the current long-term plan?
3. What is missing in the long-term plan? Are there areas, and needs, that are not ‘covered’ by the plan’s long-term priorities and, if so, in which ones?

Answers to these three questions should be sent by the research group leaders to Silke Appel by Monday 21 June. K2 makes a comprehensive answer which is sent to the faculty.

Friday, May 21 at 13-14, there will be a digital start-up meeting for the audit round where the Minister of Education will introduce the ambitions for the plan and the process towards a completely revised plan: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/innspillsrunden-for-langtidsplanen-statsrad-asheim -invites-to-boot-fashion-21-May / id2848736 /

Wishing you a peaceful and nice Pentecost!

In 2021, UiB will be 75 years old and everyone at UiB is invited to join the celebration, see information here.

The anniversary will have “Knowledge That Shaped Society” as a theme, and will make visible our values, our strengths and our role in society, with the faculties and the University Museum as our most important arenas of knowledge. In the autumn, there will be a separate Anniversary Week 25 – 31 October, with activities and events for UiB’s students and staff, but also for a wider audience. K2 can propose contributions to the f

Faculty that will take this on to the Anniversary Committee.

K2 now asks everyone for:

1. Proposals for contributions this autumn’s Anniversary Week should be sent to the Head of Research, Silke Appel (silke.appel@uib.no) or the Head of Teaching, Mette Vesterhus (mette.vesterhus@uib.no) by 26/4.

Contributions:

• Can take place from the start of studies until the autumn and into 2021
• Can be lectures, podcasts, guided tours, debates, conversations, exhibitions, printed matter, concerts, readings, art projects, chronicles, etc

3. Not only retrospective topics, but also topics that are current, such as:
4. What role should the university play in the future in a world with fake news, alternative facts?
5. What will be the next pandemic? How should society prepare?
6. How far can one go in replacing human parts?

Hoping for many and innovative suggestions!

Have a great weekend,

Pål

Now you have the opportunity to suggest colleagues and groups that have excelled in the past year for prizes – it’s prize time! The faculty announces both research and teaching prizes and each department can nominate up to two candidates in each category, except for this year’s publication (that is 2020) where one proposal can be submitted.

The research prizes are: this year’s publication, this year’s PhD dissertation, and this year’s research and innovation environment as well as the dissemination prize. For teaching, up to three prizes are awarded for outstanding efforts in education. Of these, there is a main prize of NOK 150 000 and two prizes each of NOK 50 000.

Nominations for the research awards should be sent to The Deputy Director for Research Silke Appel (silke.appel@uib.no). Teaching award nominations should be sent to The Deputy Director for Teaching Mette Vesterhus (mette.vesterhus@uib.no). The deadline for nominations for all these awards is April 16. It would have been very nice if K2 stands out with many good nominations.

In addition, K2’s teaching prize will be awarded on the annual teaching day 19 May. Do you know anyone who has contributed to extraordinarily good student-centered teaching, or more organizationally; someone who have taken a leadership role and implemented innovative teaching programs? If so, send nominations to The Deputy Director for Teaching Mette Vesterhus us by 10 May.

You find more information on the prizes in K2-news week 12 (https://k2info.w.uib.no/).

REgarding teaching, the Norwegian Parliament has allocated a total of NOK 150 million to universities, colleges to pay students to provide academic follow-up to other students. Our faculty has received about 1 million kroner for this and the idea is that the funds will be used already this spring. Possible use is to pay experienced students to have group tuition for younger students. Here, however, the deadline is very short and the department must send proposals to the faculty as early as 12 April. Proposals are sent to Mette Vesterhus

Hoping for many nominations and proposals.

Eystein Husebye

As you may have noticed, our current Head of Administration, Julie Stavnes, is leaving. Julie has held the position for six years and has made a huge effort for the Department. Her background as a Master of Business Administration from NHH and the business community has been very useful in the demanding job of being Head of Administration for a department that is as large as several other faculties at the University of Bergen.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julie for a wonderful effort, not only administratively professionally, but also socially and as a fellow human being. I think I can say on behalf of everyone at K2 that we will miss her very much. She goes to the position of Head of Administration at BIO, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and they are very lucky.

Julie will be difficult to replace. Hence, we hope to get good applicants. If you know of any good management candidates, you need to encourage them to apply. The deadline is the weekend after Easter.

I also take this opportunity to encourage everyone to respond to the ARK survey. It is absolutely central as an instrument for improving the working environment and preventing unnecessary health, environment and safety work (HMS in Norwegian) measures. Here, all voices will count and be important. A unique aspect of the survey is that it is repeated every few years so that it is possible to map changes in the working environment over time.

Dean Per Bakke has promised a free lunch with tall sandwiches and something extra for the department with the highest response rate. K2 is used to winning and this “gold is gonna go home”. Conduct the survey today!

HAPPY EASTER AND HOLIDAYS to everyone!

This year’s awards

The Faculty of Medicine will also this year award prizes for best 2020 publication, PhD work, research / innovation environment and outstanding research dissemination as well as outstanding measures in education. The proposals will go through the departments.

We ask for proposals for this year’s prices by Friday 16 April. Send these to silke.appel@uib.no. More comprehensive information can be found here.

Announcement of incentive funds for education 2021

For 2021, the University of Bergen is announcing a total of NOK 3.3 million in searchable incentive funds for quality-enhancing measures in the educations. The purpose of the scheme is to promote projects that are innovative, in line with UiB’s strategic initiatives or that contribute to achieving national goals for study quality and implementation.

Guidelines and application are linked here. We request that applications be sent to julie.stavnes@uib.no by Wednesday 7 April. The applications will be sent to the Faculty, which forwards the applications to UiB.

PhD positions at the Pandemic Center

The Pandemic Center at the University of Bergen invites to project sketches for two PhD positions. The call is open to all academic environments at UiB. Further information about the positions, requirements for project sketches and template for application form can be found below.

https://www.uib.no/pandemi/143366/pandemisenteret-utlyser-stipendiatstillinger

K2’s teaching prize

Our Department recognizes the importance of good teaching to the extent that we have a prize awarded to the person / teaching environment that has excelled during the previous year. It can be clinical or paraclinical, within the areas for which K2 has teaching responsibility. It can be directly close to the student or more organizational; to create a new study plan. Who do you know who has contributed to extraordinarily good student teaching, or more organizationally; gone in the breeze and implemented innovative teaching programs?

Please send an email to mette.vesterhus@uib.no by 10 May regarding your candidate and a brief explanation. The Department management will then select the best candidate to receive this year’s prize, which will be awarded on the Teaching Day on 19 May. :

Finally, I will again encourage everyone to vote in the election of a new rectorate.

Have a great weekend!