I am writing this editorial on the World Diabetes Day. This is the world’s largest diabetes awareness campaign reaching a global audience of over 1 billion people in more than 160 countries. The campaign draws attention to issues of paramount importance to the diabetes world and keeps diabetes firmly in the public and political spotlight. It is marked every year on 14 November, the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who was one of the discoverers of insulin in 1922.

World Diabetes Day was created in 1991 by International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat posed by diabetes. World Diabetes Day became an official United Nations Day in 2006 with the passage of United Nation Resolution 61/225.

The World Diabetes Day campaign aims to be the platform to promote by International Diabetes Federation advocacy efforts throughout the year, and to be the global driver to promote the importance of taking coordinated and concerted actions to confront diabetes as a critical global health issue.

The campaign is represented by a blue circle logo that was adopted in 2007 after the passage of the UN Resolution on diabetes. The blue circle is the global symbol for diabetes awareness. It signifies the unity of the global diabetes community in response to the diabetes epidemic.

Every year, World Diabetes Day has a specific theme which runs over one or multiple years. The theme for World Diabetes Day 2018-19 is Family and Diabetes.

Several initiatives are also happening in Norway. One is to put emphasis on diabetes research. The Diabetes Association has a long tradition of distributing research funding to a wide range of diabetes research through the Diabetes Association Research Fund. The Diabetes Association’s Research Award was for the first time awarded in 2017, and aims to stimulate more Norwegian diabetes research. The award committee consists of recognized Nordic researchers.

Simon Dankel and I were invited as previous prize winners (Simon won the Research Award for Young Researchers in 2018, I the senior Research Award in 2017) at the award ceremony at the University of Oslo’s Aula and following dinner at Hotel Bristol. Professor Kåre Birkeland at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital received the Diabetes Association’s Research Award, for his efforts to improve the treatment of type 2 diabetes and to understand the underlying mechanisms of the disease. Postdoctoral candidate Christine Sommer, who won the Research Award for Younger Researchers, has excelled in Norway and internationally for her research on gestational diabetes.

A very special honor was awarded to Professor Emeritus Kristian Folkvord Hanssen at the University of Oslo receiving the King’s Fortjenestemedalje for his long efforts to better treatment of diabetes. Of extra relevance to us here in Bergen is that his grandfather was Olav Hanssen, a former famous physician and researcher at Haukeland University Hospital. Congratulations to the three winners!!!

Enjoy the week end!

These are some of the topics that will be discussed at the innovation intro course for professors to be held in Trondheim at the end of this month. The School of Health Innovation is a collaborate initiative between UIO, NTNU and Karolinska Institute aiming to provide life science researchers and clinicians with tools and insight into how innovation can be put to work for the benefit of patients, the healthcare system and our society. The course was initiated in 2017 delivering courses to life science PhDs, post-docs and clinicians from Nordic universities. There is no course fee, and lunch/dinner is covered by the School of Health Innovation. Participants cover expenses for accommodation and travel. There are only 20 slots available for this course, so please sign up! If you are interested please register by 15 November, by sending your CV to Bjarte Reve, project manager for School of Health Innovation (HIS) bjarte.reve@medisin.uio.no

Program – School of Health innovation for professors(pdf)
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course the participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the opportunities of health innovation and entrepreneurship for utilization of research
• Increase innovation and productivity in your lab/research group
• Utilize incentives in order to increase innovation in your lab/department
• Apply scientific background and knowledge of health innovation to address challenges and develop services and products within a clinical setting and a biopharma/medtech setting
• Use various business tools for ideation and feasibility studies; to develop, prototype and test solutions to user needs
• Demonstrate an understanding of how the Tech Transfer Office and other innovation support actors can support the commercialization process
• Apply the basics in financing a startup company from private and governmental funding bodies
• Assess their skills in health innovation and reflect on the exploitation of their own research
• Combine being a scientist and a health innovator/entrepreneur

When & where
Dates: 28-29 November 2019.
Venue:Det Kongelige Norske Vitenskapers Selskap, Elvegata 17,Trondheim
Hotel for participants: Quality Hotel Augustin

This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for the discovery of how cells sense oxygen and adapt their metabolism to different oxygen levels. Their findings are of great clinical relevance and explain, among other things, how erythrocyte formation is regulated and the mechanism for the development of various cancers as also discussed in the K2-editorial in Week 42.

I think it is interesting that all the three award winners are clinicians and have approached the problem of oxygen sensing from different angles. The paediatrician Semenza and the nephrologist Ratcliffe studied erythropoietin regulation, while oncologist Kaelin’s approach was to understand a rare tumour syndrome characterized by stress hormone-producing tumours in the adrenal medulla (phaeochromocytoma), angioblastomas in the central nervous system, and multifocal renal cancer (von Hippel Lindau’s syndrome (VHL)). He found that the VHL protein forms a complex with hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1a) that leads to degradation of HIF1a. Lack of VHL generates a hypoxic signal eventually leading to angiogenesis and tumour formation.

What can we learn from them? Perhaps one message is that it is difficult to predict where the next major medical breakthrough will come from, and that too much ear marking of research resources in specific directions (read research programs) is less fruitful than letting scientists choose their own problems to study. As one research leader put it: “We don’t care what you do; we want you to be one of the leaders in your field”. Another tenet is the power of translational research in which studies of rare monogenic diseases can lead to breakthroughs in the understanding of basic physiological mechanisms that, in turn, open up to the development of new exciting therapies.

Let this year’s Nobel Prize be an inspiration for good translational research

Eystein

It is hard to keep track regarding the variety of teaching and teachers affiliated with K2 and participating in the range of University initiated subjects within the programs of dentistry, medicine, nutrition and pharmacy. Each program are using teachers across departments. With K2’s organizational structure the Research group leaders are those formally “in line” but their main focus are regarding the group/participants’ research. To fully be aware of each of their group members’ participation and competence regarding teaching may not be on top of the leadership agenda.

K2 therefore has initiated a process to bring forward the teaching responsibilities we hold at our department and propose the function called UGLE (OWL); Norwegian UndervisningsGruppeLEder (Group leader for teaching/education). The UGLE should hold a permanent academic position and within the specified subject allocated, surveil all the teachers at K2 within this subject, across research groups.

The working group has proposed a mandate and suggested who will be honored with the first 2-year round of being an UGLE. We have also named their vice-UGLE who should step up during UGLE-absence and as UGLE for the following period.

I would ask all of You teachers to look through the mandate; are the functions amended to the UGLEs appropriate?  Are there teaching areas/subjects that we are unaware of? Do You find which UGLE cover your teaching area(s)? The working group really need Your feedback to correct the mandate before we release the UGLEs.

Another matter: as mentioned in K2-nytt before summer break: K2 will prioritize bioinformatics. We thus embark on a survey regarding what You as academics consider needed to be provided of bioinformatics education. Anagha Joshi (the K2 affiliated bioinformatician) will submit at questionnaire to the academic staff. I hope most of you will provide answers: WHAT are Your needs? Hopefully then we may tailor the bioinformatics education to the different needs within K2.

Following our tradition we will also this year have a K2 Junior retreat for PhD fellows and postdocs at K2, this year 4.-5. November in Myrkdalen, Voss. This year’s topic is creative thinking and stress management, and not to forget networking. A big thank you to the organization committee for this interesting program. It is not too late to register, the deadline is today 11.10.

This autumn we also have the possibility to improve our grant-writing skills. The research advisors arrange a seminar on the 7^thNovember, 12:00-13:00 in the seminar room 7.1/2, Laboratory building. We have been so fortunate to show you examples of granted proposals from our researchers and will focus on excellence and impact sections of these. You will see examples of introduction, objectives and various types of impact. The difference between communication and dissemination is not so easy to delineate and we will therefore show examples of both. Finally, we have prepared an overview of upcoming deadlines and will also show examples of prizes and awards you can nominate yourself or others to. The seminar is relevant for everyone who at some point plans to submit a proposal for funding. The department will serve lunch so we kindly ask you to register here.

Talking about awards: the Department of Clinical Science wants to promote candidates for the Kong Olav V cancer research award. Suggestions can be sent to Silke by 4.11.2019.

And last but not least: the faculty’s candidate professor Bruce R. Zetter will be appointed honorary doctor at The Faculty of Medicine, and in connection with this will he give a guest lecture on Monday October 14^that 14:15 (“RNA as a tool for cancer therapy”; Store Auditorium, main building Haukeland University hospital). There will be served tapas afterwards, so please register here.

Data protection and privacy for individuals is the right to privacy and the right to decide on your own personal data. GDPR Article 30 strengthens the requirements for overview and control. UiB has a legal responsibility to safeguard the privacy of employees, students, and research participants. In order to meet this responsibility, RETTE is now being implemented to ensure compliance with and increased competence for key legislation in research and education.

RETTE stands for risk and compliance (Risiko og ETTErlevelse ) in research projects, and is UiB’s system for monitoring and control of the processing of personal data in research and student projects. The system will also have an overview and control of tasks and projects related to quality assurance of patient care and teaching, and projects related to learning analysis purposes.

RETTE will be available for registration of information on projects that process personal data at UiB from October. The Faculty of Medicine is the faculty that first gains access to the RETTE. Registration, follow-up and confirmation of projects will be carried out in the administrative line with RETTE arranging for responsibility for confirmation from the project manager, the department management, and the faculty management on their project portfolio.

RETTE aims to increase the competence in the privacy rights for students and staff, and should be a tool for the institutes at UiB so that they can be sure that personal data is processed in accordance with current legislation.

In practical terms, RETTE is a website linked to UiB.no/personvernportalen where no installation or special technical skills are required to use the system. The system consists of a registration module for students and staff, and an admin module for the use of institutes, faculties and management.

There are role-based approaches in RETTE, and the Dean and Head of Department designate and select faculty and department heads for RETTE within the system. At K2, it is research leader Silke Appel who will be operationally responsible for monitoring projects in RETTE.

Health research projects must first seek REK. Approved projects are then transferred to RETTE from Cristin, and researchers will be told to provide supplementary information in the RETTE. Projects requiring exemption from the duty of confidentiality must first seek REK, and follow the procedure in RETTE. Completing the form in RETTE is stated to take approx. 10 minutes. For more information, see https://www.uib.no/personvern.

It is great that UiB takes the Privacy Act and GDPR seriously. RETTE seems to be a tool that is practical and useful for the purpose.

Happy fall holidays!

Pål Rasmus Njølstad

I write this editorial onboard my flight to Vienna. There we have Allgemeine Krankenhaus, the hospital where Ignaz Semmelweis demonstrated the connection between doctors and midwives’ lack of hand hygiene and the prevalence of puerperal fever. Our class at medical school visited the hospital and were able to follow an excellent round from an undoubtedly important professor with a looooong tail of people behind….. Good memories! Maybe I will have time to stop by again, although my mission is now to focus on genetics and not the environment by giving a lecture on monogenic diabetes at the annual meeting of the European Study Group for Pediatric Endocrinology.

These types of congresses provide important academic replenishment. The funding of travel and accommodation changed drastically many years ago to maintain clearer lines between university and health care professionals and for-profit businesses, which I think was right in terms of potential competition as well as individual loyalty. That brings me to side line jobs, and our duty to update them twice a year.

By side line jobs is meant job placement, job acquisition, assignments and assignments that an employee at UiB has outside his / her position at UiB, regardless of whether the work or job is paid or not. Work carried out for an enterprise or company wholly or partly owned by the employee is also regarded as a side line job.

The principles for side line jobs can be found in UiB’s Regelsamling (Norwegian only) and apply to all UiB employees, irrespective of the category of job and the number of positions. They must protect our reputation and the trust and integrity of the employees. There should be openness about side line jobs that may have an impact on the work of the university. Everyone must report on their own side assignment on their own initiative.

The following need not be registered: Membership in external review committees, referee for professional journals, assignments as external examiner, professional assignments that accompany main position or individual minor assignments in teaching or dissemination at other institutions, or unpaid appointments of limited scope for non-profit institutions.

The following must be reported: Side line jobs that may be in competition with the University’s activities, are of a long or extensive nature, and may cast doubt on the employee’s loyalty, willingness or ability to carry out his work at the University in the manner indicated by the position and the University’s purpose, and persistently use of the university’s resources and infrastructure.

Applications for side line jobs are evaluated according to the University’s principles for side line jobs, see above. Both registration of page tasks that require approval, and those that are only to be registered, are done in Pagaweb. Information about the side line jobs is stored there and will be made publicly available.

The Department Head approves or rejects applications. Rejection of an application can be appealed to the Faculty Board or the University Director. Violation of the principles of side-tasks can lead to personnel consequences under the Civil Service Act and other reactions under the rules of default in the civil service.

This may seem negative? No, side assignments are positive as long as it does not hamper or slow down our regular work, can damage the university’s reputation, or mix its own and the university’s resources.

Have a great weekend!

Autumn is often the time for the annual employee interviews. These are part of targeted management and employee development. Therefore, the annual, systematic and mutually prepared personal conversations between an employee and the immediate superior are.

The employee interviews should be linked to K2’s strategic plans and be a real and results-oriented management tool to achieve set goals. The conversation is also an important arena for clarifying expectations of performance, providing mutual feedback and insight into each other’s work situation and addressing the working environment and conditions at the workplace.

The conversation will also be used to uncover competence needs, change and development. Elements related to life phase can be addressed as a theme. The content of the employee interview should be focused on the relationship between the manager and the employee can do something about.

As a natural part of the performance appraisal and the expectation clarification, the contractual conversation about pay is included as part of the employee interview. It is important to remember, then, that we have established wage bargaining systems.

As head of the department, I am in principle responsible for all employees being offered annual employee interviews and am responsible for including the results of the discussions in the unit’s plans and budget. It is not possible to do this for all of K2’s 350 employees, so the conduct of the talks is delegated in such a way that I have employee interviews with the research group leaders while again being responsible for conducting the conversations with their group members. When it comes to administrative staff, Julie Stavnes is the head of administration.

It is important to communicate what you want to achieve in the employee interview and to facilitate the confidentiality needed for the conversation to have added value for both parties. This can be a gradual process that may take some time. To foreign employees, it is important to pay attention to their need to understand overall strategies and goals for the business, the importance of a good and inclusive work environment and the individual’s opportunities for contribution to the community. Relevant topics may also be their social networks, trust vis a vis the leader and colleagues, experience of belonging and in some cases facilitation and integration also outside the workplace.

Finally, I will remind you of the Faculty Lunch on Wednesday 11 September at 11.30-12.20. The Faculty management by Per Bakke and Marit Bakke will discuss the importance of external funding / BOA for the future of our university.

On Monday 26th, those who wanted, might attend the AMEE (Association of Medical Education) congress free from any “PLANE SHAME”! By Skype, from the Congress in Vienna, we could attnd the main lecture and the following plenary discussion on “Medical work and Learning in Transition”. Provided with breakfast rolls and coffee those of us gathering in the Board room in the house of Armauer Hansen could discuss our local study organization!

The Unit for Learning continues with providing more low-threshold education: in the same location in the Armauer Hansen’s house, in early afternoon (during 15.00 to 15.45), the following drop-in sessions will be held:

30.09 Strengthening of practice (we host a lot of skill teaching in both pharmacy and medicine!)

28.10 Flipped classroom, how do students prepare for teaching?

26.11 Stringent PowerPoint use

09.12 Longitudinal assessment: experiences from map-evaluation in the 11th semester of the medical study.

And more in-depth pedagogy: do you need PRACTICAL training in using MittUiB / Canvas (the site where we will actually post handouts or literature proposals and create quizzes), or how to create multippl choice questions (MCQ) to be posted in the MCQ-database?

Our “super-user” Harald Wiker has offered to organize hands-on courses! First in line is the pharma environment (who cannot find their former posted files after the site front-page was reorganized..). Could please all group leaders ask their teachers what they need; new employees as well as long-time professors. We will come back with specific time- and theme slots. If these times do not fit with your needs, contact me and we will reorganize.