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