I hope everyone has had a nice holiday returning with the batteries reloaded.

At the time of writing, the students have already begun, and many K2 employees are fully occupied with teaching. It is often busy getting started after the holiday. Switching from vacation to a hectic university life takes time. New students means more work at the start. Research never rests. Although many have picked up email and delt with the most urgent, most have probably a lot of outstanding tasks that now need to be sorted out.

On August 21, we had the visit of Rector Dag Rune Olsen, Vice-Rector for Education Oddrun Samdal and Vice-Rector for Global Relations Annelin Eriksen. Presentations were given by Researcher Randi Bertelsen (A New ERC Starting Grant – BRuSH), me (A completed ERC Advanced Grant – SELECTIONpreDISPOSED), Researcher Bergithe Eikeland Oftedal (Innovation in endocrinology), and Professor Stian Knappskog (Personalized Medicine in Cancer Treatment). Afterwards there was a tour of the university premises in the Glass Blocks. It was clear that the Rectorate was impressed with the quality of the research, that K2 alone stands for approx. 15% of all BOA at UiB, and great premises for research and teaching. Thanks to all who contributed.

Good luck with a new term!

At the time of writing, the OSCE was just finished. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your great efforts in planning and implementing this. Many have been involved, and in particular I would like to emphasize all administrative employees who have participated in time-consuming preparations and execution of the day. As last year, I participated this year as a sensor on a task in pediatrics. In addition to being exciting to see how the students solved the task, it was inspiring to learn that they liked this exam form. A student actually wanted several OSCE exams. Furthermore, it is fun to be part of such an event. One can also meet employees at the faculty across departments and type of employment in an exciting setting. Lunch and plenty of coffee promote small talk and a cheerful atmosphere.

We have recently submitted the budget proposal for 2020. It is an ambitious budget that takes into account the challenges we see in the coming year when it comes to education, research, innovation and dissemination. The finance department needs a big thank you for solid work on the budget.

As discussed at Faculty Lunch and announced in previous K2 News, we now want to look at adjustments in the research groups. This is necessary because of natural retirement and changes in activity for some of the groups now when it is six years since the groups were formed. We have therefore initiated a process of changing the composition of some of the research groups. Permanent scientific staff for relevant groups are summoned. We hope for a constructive dialogue and cooperation in this process and that the outcome provides a better everyday life for the individual. Feel free to contact us by mail regarding input in this process.

After an unusually warm April we had to pay back with a cold May. Now the heat comes slowly but surely, and we are preparing for the summer holidays. For most, it has been busy times with applications, OSCE and all the meetings at the end of the semester. Hence, it will be good to get some weeks off to do completely different things. It is important to recharge the batteries so that we can start the autumn with new energy and inspiration. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their great efforts this year. Have a really good summer holiday!

The faculty day focus on employees who have distinguished themselves in various ways. The department leadership takes this opportunity to congratulate all the award winners this year, in particular K2’s prize winners. Birgitta Åsjö became the first woman to receive Falch’s senior prize for her AIDS research. Bergithe Oftedal won the Falch Prize for younger researchers and illustrated in an exemplary manner how research stays abroad can be used in building research networks and career. More people should takes such opportunities. Per Eystein Lønning received the award for this year’s research group on behalf of the breast cancer research group – a very well deserved prize.

Joint events such as the faculty day are not always prioritized by the researchers, but are very important for getting to know what is happening at the faculty. Maybe you don’t have to travel to Seatlle or Boston to learn a technique that is already running on campus. Such meetings stimulate new ideas and exchange of concepts that can benefit everyone. We need to establish more such arenas, not only within the faculty but also in collaboration with departments at the hospital. Instead of the university and the hospital being competitors, we should collaborate more on research so that we are better equipped in the competition against other environments in Norway and internationally.

Have a nice weekend

Eystein Husebye

In 2013, a new organizational structure was introduced at K2. The most important elements are that

• all scientific staff at the department must belong to a research group
• Head of Department appoints and terminates research groups and approves their leaders
• the research group leader must report directly to the Head of Department
• the research groups will as a rule consist of a minimum of six persons and will be headed by faculty personnel (at least 50% position)
• the groups should have published at least five articles annually over the last three years

The purpose of the research groups is to conduct research according to the regulations, ethical guidelines, and the Environment, Health, and Security (EHS) requirements that apply at UiB.

The tasks are among others to

• stimulate good research and optimal publishing and dissemination practices
• coordinate funding of the research group’s activity
• contribute to building up the institute’s infrastructure and expertise
• make sure that any UiB technician associated with the research group is used optimally
• ensure that annual appraisals with technical and temporary staff take place
• make sure that the research group’s publications are registered according to UiB’s requirements
• be responsible for the members of the research group contributing in the department’s teaching tasks and research training
• distributing assets to those who have generated the funds
• participate in the extended management group after appointment from the Head of Department

It is now six years since this structure was introduced. After site visits during spring 2018, it became clear that adjustments are necessary due to natural retirement and changes in activity for some of the groups. We have therefore initiated a process to chane the composition of some of the research groups. Permanent scientific staff for relevant groups will be called. Key questions for discussions will be

• Are the size of the group according to the intention?
• Are the composition of the scientific staff appropriate?
• Are there tasks the group wants to take on which can be suited for a platform service at K2
• Are there educational challenges that can be improved by a change?
• Are there other groups that are appropriate for potential merging?

After a discussion with the relevant groups, some new groups will be formed and leaders appointed. Feel free to contact me by mail regarding input in this process.

Happy Hilydays!

The faculty day is fast approaching: June 13th where you can “Meet the best!”

Søren Falch’s junior and senior prize will be awarded and the Falch lecture 2019 is held by  Professor Maiken Nedergaard, University of Copenhagen who has conducted exciting translational brain research, including underpinning the importance of the glymphatic system and sleep for brain health!

More awards to be handed out: this year’s publication, this year’s PhD, this year’s research group, prizes for internationalization, outstanding dissemination and teaching. K2 has previously received several prizes, which K2s are being honored this year?

And apropos teaching; since the faculty promotes the new title of “Excellent teacher” (which will actually lead to a salary increase!), here are some career planning tips:

Complete the basic module in pedagogy that was scheduled within two years of hiring in your main UiB position (and finish the compulsory written task/paper), anyone else but me who feel hit by the time-squeeze….?)

Remember to record consecutively in your teaching-portifolio any teaching activites you are contributing to, including teaching administration activities (student rounds, skill sessions, preparing written materials, semester boards, creating quizzes, preparing /evaluating exams), retrospective registration will often lead to missing bits..

Something else however still related to teaching: bioinformatics. This is an increasingly important part of much of our activity; with different “-omics”, both understanding and practical use of different computer science methods are required when we have large datasets with eg genetic data or “big-data” in general. K2 has employed an “own” bioinformatician: Anagha Joshi, but as per. today we have not implemented any structured bioinformatic teaching in our study programs. CBU; Computational Biology Unit runs interdisciplinary (informatics / mathematics / chemistry / biology) research and teaching at various study programs/levels and has initiated a joint call to identify what might be coordinated bioinformatic teaching also in medicine/pharmacy (our study programs).

Can our students benefit from existing courses, for example during elective periods or research-line students/PhD students during other parts of the terms? Is there a need for postgraduate courses in relation to your research/subject area?

Anaghi and I are interested in input that we will convey further. Anaghi will gladly contribute to developing courses, but we want to avoid duplication with already existing courses and rather promote courses “across” study-diciplines.

It has now been two months since our conference at Solstrand, and since then I have gathered all your input from the group work on K2s strategy plan.

All your suggestions amounted to four pages of suggestions on what we should keep from our current plan, and what new goals and measures should be included in our new plan. Among other things, your suggestions were a separate goal on innovation at K2 as well as environmental goals and a green strategy. According to your input, we are still in want of meeting places across internal groupings, and career planning for our younger researchers. I am very grateful for your group work at Solstrand and your good input to the new strategy plan.

The new plan will act for three years from 2020 and part of the leader group at K2 will be involved in editing the existing plan. A draft for the new strategy plan will be distributed to all you after the summer. I hope you will take the time both to read and comment when I send it to you.

Best,
Julie

Last week, the Institute had a dialogue meeting with the medical faculty about the research education at the institute. It turns out that there is a minority of fellows who complete their doctorate within 4 years (36%), while a little more than half complete within 6 years (55%). K2 is thus below the average at the medical faculty, which is 65% (by the way, the target number of the Ministry of Education and Research is 80%). No one can say a lot about the reasons or what is more important, to finish the thesis within a given time frame or to deliver a work of good quality. But we do see that there are some fellows who struggle to finish their PhD.

It is always difficult to predict the results of experiments or clinical trials, but it is possible to make life at the end of the PhD period considerably less stressful if you start planning mandatory courses and dissemination points well in time. For example, MEDMET1 (Basic Course in Medical and Health Related Research) is one of the courses that is compulsory for all PhD fellows at the Faculty of Medicine, and it should be taken at the very beginning of the doctoral thesis to have some benefit. For those unfamiliar with MEDMET1, the purpose of the course is to provide an overview of the various stages of the research process including formulating a research question to be addressed, data collection, analysis methods, written and oral presentation of research data as well as research ethics. The course is given every semester. K2 also offers 8 different researcher courses under the umbrella of the two research schools at K2 (Research School in Clinical Medicine and Bergen Research School in Inflammation). Also the mid-term evaluation is compulsory and can be a good control checkpoint if one is on track with the project, and a possibility to ask for help. And remember that one can always contact Irene Hjelmås or me if there is anything one needs help with.

Last deadline for submitting your thesis before summer is set to 21.6., after that, the institute cannot guarantee that everyone who needs to sign anything is in place.

Lastly, I just want to mention that there will be a K2 PhD retreat also this year which I strongly recommend to participate in, not only to get to know your fellow PhD candidates, but not least for the feeling of not standing in everything alone, so stay tuned for more information!

I wish everyone a happy May 17!

As is well known, K2 and K1 have a joint student administration. May 7, we had the annual Teaching Day. Although the attendance was good, it could certainly have been even better. I ask that more people set aside the next day – because the program was important and useful.

Eirik Søfteland (K1) first informed about how OSCE (objective structured clinical exam) in 2018 for the 6th semester was organized and implemented. Well over 300 people were involved in it. Although the OSCE day itself was a logistical challenge to complete both the practical and theoretical evaluation of all the students on the same day, it was without doubt the planning of this which was the biggest challenge. And it actually went smoothly without any special problems! A big thank you to everyone, especially the “OSCE General” Ketil Grong (K2) and Eirik Søfteland (K1).

Responsible for the implementation of this year’s OSCE for the 12th semester is Rune Nielsen (K2). He explained the plans. The date is Thursday, June 6th. This date, all K2 employees must in principle set aside in case they are needed for the implementation of this year’s OSCE. In any case, more examiners are needed. I participated as examinator last year and it was interesting, exciting, and fun. Come on: ask not what K2 can do for you, ask what you can do for K2!

Dean of Teaching Steinar Hunskår informed about the proposed qualification scheme for Outstanding Teachers and how K2 can implement this. In the future, there will be more focus on documented teaching – not just quantity but also quality. Everyone with an academic position must build up a teaching portfolio. Collect documentation about eg. invited lectures, presentations at meetings and seminars, lectures and group teaching, organization of teaching, and others’ evaluation of your efforts. The proposed accreditation scheme will, according to given criteria, designate people who excel especially for the title of Outstanding Teachers. In addition to their status, they will be provided with higher salaries. The proposal is now for review at the Departments. Be active and share your opinion on this matter! Send input directly to Julie Stavnes.

After lunch, Jone Trovik, Ingfrid Salvesen Haldorsen (K1) and Hans Kristian Flaatten (K1) demonstrated team-based learning (TBL). Participants on the Teaching Day were divided into groups for a TBL session where we used Socrative and at the same time learned multiple choice assignments. This was practical and very useful, and at least I learned a lot that I did not know before. A practical limitation on Socrative is that the free version can involve a maximum of 50 students. We are now investigating whether it is possible to purchase a common license for all teachers at K2 and K1 and where one can involve up to 150 students.

This year’s Teaching Award went to Bjørg Tilde Svanes Fevang (K2) and Anders Molven (K1). Congratulations to both – well deserved! In addition to honour and glory, the K2 Teaching Award comes with NOK 50.000.

A big thank you to the Vice Directors Jone Trovik and Ingfrid Salvesen Haldorsen (K1) for a well-executed teaching day. I certainly look forward to next time!

Since the New Year I have been involved, along with representatives of all the faculties of the university, in the drafting of an action plan for innovation for the university of Bergen. This work concluded on the 30th of April and will now be presented to the rektotrate for approval. It’s clear from the commitment to this project that innovation will now percolate into all facets of university life from teaching through research. While some might have grave reservations in this direction, believing we are abandoning the fundamental tenants of a university, it maybe that this is down to how exactly one defines “innovation”. Indeed, the committee that helped put this report together naturally had very different ideas as to what innovation was and how it should be implemented across each of the faculties. The Oslo manual 2018 manual on Guidelines for Collecting, Reporting and Using Data on Innovation defines Innovation as:

“a new or improved product or process (or combination thereof) that differs significantly from the unit’s previous products or processes and that has been made available to potential users (product) or brought into use by the unit (process)”.

In this context, innovation is not necessarily selling ones soul to corporate research, but implementing change for the betterment of society – which is in essence what most of us are trying to achieve within biomedical research. It will be interesting to see how this rolls out across the university, and the potential funding opportunities it will afford.

Finally, the biomedical network will have a meeting on “Drug Repurposing” to be held at bikuben, haukeland university hospital on June 7^thfrom 12-16:00.

In addition to being at Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, I worked one day a week at the Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). This is a public hospital located in downtown Boston and is considered by many to be one of the world’s best hospitals. Here, the world’s first ether anesthesia was performed, where a number of interested doctors observed the incident, see the legendary image (hanging in The Ether Dome; find the error!). I participated in several Grand Rounds in endocrinology in this room. The level of these was impressive. Assistant doctors gave presentations that were very detailed, and biochemistry and genetics were carefully dissected. There was plenty of time for discussions where seniors were very active. The first time I was there, it was full flap. The two presentations were about MODY and hyperinsulin, respectively. These are two disease groups that I have worked a lot with as a clinician and researcher for many years!

Otherwise, at MGH every week there is a presentation of a case for all doctors in education and other interested. These include supplementary information from several doctors involved in investigation and treatment. Own personnel write up what is said and the one who held the presentation finally publishes it in the New England Journal of Medicine. I was attending my boss, Professor Jose Florez MD PhD, his presentation of an unusual case of gestational diabetes. The presentation was just amazing. It was elegant and to the point, easily explained but still detailed when it comes to investigation and treatment. In addition, he included state-of-the-art at the research front in the field. The presentation was with a decent portion of humor so it didn’t get boring. The presentation was of great inspiration when it comes to, for example, teaching of students. Our teaching should be research-based. It must be updated. The students are particularly pleased with lecturers who are inspiring. It often doesn’t take much more than giving a little bit of oneself and with a smile occasionally. Then the students better follow the talk.

Have a great weekend!

Yesterday some of us were gathered to count down towards the deadline for submitting applications to the Research Council of Norway; 10 – 9 – 8 down to 0. At the deadline K2’ers had send a total of 35 applications to NFR. Thanks to all the applicants and the administration (Amra, Julie, Kate, Kjetil, Linn, Burhan,and Mia) who have all worked towards a common goal – to send the best possible applications to The Research Council. The department leadership is very pleased with the effort. Hopefully we will be inspired to eat another cate as Christmas approaches.

At the same time, we must all be aware that the “eye of the needle” is small, even though we received two FRIPRO, three BEHANDLING and one GLOBEVAC project last year. This might be a national record for a department of our size. It is also gratifying to see that so many of the younger researchers are applying this year. Twelve applications were written by researchers in temporary positions. Altogether 19 applications were written by women and 16 by men. This testifies to the ability and willingness of K2’ers to move forward to be leaders in their fields.

Knowing that only about 1 out of 20 applications are funded, the majority of the 35 will be successful. Nevertheless, the writing process and all the time spent is not at all wasted as it both sharpens the hypotheses and ideas of the scientific project, and because the application can be used for other calls, such as Helse Vest and EU.

Writing applications is a “stone upon stone” process that we, who thrive going uphill, are good at. So let’s hope that success breeds success – and that Santa Claus comes to visit early this year.

Eystein Husebye
Deputy K2

Dear everyone

Thank you for your support and cooperation during the 6 months stint as Acting head of Department. I have to admit that it has been somewhat demanding to allocate the necessary time to the job, as other commitments have taken their time too. Head of Administration Julie and her team have done a great job of helping me with the work- thank you so much! The others in the leader team, Silke, Emmet and Jone have also helped by pulling extra weight.

Then there is always potential for improvement. The announcement and hiring processes takes a long time. There are many steps in such a process and there are formal requirements and regulations to be followed. In some cases, the delays have been due to me, in other cases it is the sum of all the steps that cause delays. That said, be confident that we are working to improve ourselves.

The dedicated e-mail address to the head of department (instituttleder@k2.uib.no) and the department administration (post@k2.uib.no) will be prolonged under Pål’s leadership. My experience is that it improves communication and secures that all questions are answered in reasonable time.

Thank you all again, and welcome back Pål!

Eystein
Deputy Head of Department