This Tuesday the Institute Council approved a new organization for K2. The old organization of K2 had one axis for teaching, divided into 8 areas and one axis for research, divided in 21 research groups. The purpose of this division was to ensure teaching would be equated with research. The eight managers with responsibility for education have constituted the extended management team at K2.

A disadvantage of this arrangement is that it has been 8 + 21 groups, a total of 29 groups who reported directly to the department management. The control span for the K2 head was large. In addition there was an artificial distinction between research and teaching with two separate axes. In reality, it is the researchers who teach.

It has therefore been desirable to have a new organization of K2 with a smaller span of control for the management, and with research and teaching seen as a whole. In the new curriculum in medicine there will be semester boards that are responsible for the education in each semester. These semester boards will overlap with the function of today’s education managers.

In the new organization of K2, the current education managers will be abandoned. 7 of the 21 research group leaders will constitute the extended management team. The advantage of the new organization is that it is simpler, the department management will have a more manageable span of control and the differentiation between teaching and research is reduced.

I will take this opportunity to thank the education managers for the job they have done. The new organization is not to express dissatisfaction with their efforts, but is the result of experience with the old model and not least that semester boards will be established in the new curriculum for medicine.

Per

This statement came from an otherwise sober-minded fellow professor when I discussed the impending EUU seminar (or teaching days for academic staff at K1 and K2). The wording in K2Nytt 34 was: “The teaching days are mandatory for teachers in main positions.”

Research (gaining new knowledge) is of course highly rated in our university environment and merits are measured with publication points, annual PhD degrees and research awards. But knowledge must be communicated (taught) and the university as the highest level educational institution has a particular responsibility to provide updated scientific but also educational excellence in teaching! We know that we value expertise, but what about teaching methods? Have we (you …) something to learn?

On the first day (October 1st PM 9-12) of the upcoming seminar (program, registration), a review of the new curriculum for medicine is presented. The first group of students has already started this fall and early on they will attend clinical department rounds, so we will meet them soon. The teaching program will be redistributed within and between semesters, what does that mean for your teaching? Clinical procedures / skills training, how do we train and evaluate this? Decentralized teaching (at Haugesund, Førde and SUS), who is responsible for what?

Today’s students are technological competent and continuously online. Can we utilize that to improve our teaching? On the second day (October 14th) the three other universities will present their experience with E-learning. Canvas is the new E-learning system to be used at UiB and Inspera is our new digital examination platform.

To counter allergia obligatoria, we end with this reformulated call to all with teaching commitments: COME AND BE INSPIRED!

Jone Trovik

I hope you all had a nice summer, and that you have had the chance to recharge your batteries and are ready for new achievements this autumn.
The department has a new administration manager, Julie Stavnes. She used to work in the oil industry, and will be able to see the department administration with fresh eyes. A detailed presentation of her can be found elsewhere in this issue.
Eva Gerdts has resigned as program coordinator after putting in a huge effort over several years, and is replaced by Jone Trovik from the gyn / obs environment.

This autumn there are several important issues for the department. The current strategic plan for K2 expires this year. We need to evaluate to what extent we have reached the goals we set and, not least, prepare a new one. The K2 organization will be adjusted.
The implementation of the new curriculum in medicine is to be implemented.
The focus on applications for external projects must be encouraged.
And not least the tight economy is a theme.I report that K2’s economy is improving. I will come backk to these and other matters later.
Per

Summer is approaching and this is the last K2Nytt before the holiday. It has been a hectic half-year. When it comes to research, it should be mentioned that K2 since 2014 is the department at UiB with most EU applications, the number is 24, out of which 5 have been granted, one of them a coordinator project, the only one at UiB. We are still awaiting results on 11 of the applications. This shows that EU applications are worthwhile.

When it comes to teaching, the work on the new curriculum in medicine has been central. There is still much work to be done. It should also be noted that the pharmacy study has worked towards beginning an education in galenic pharmacy, which will start this fall.

Economically things are tight, but we keep to the budget and there is a realistic plan to pay down our debt of approximately NOK 3 million within a few years.

Various important issues this fall are a new organization of K2, work on a new strategy for the department, and not least the new curriculum in addition to focusing on external funding. But now it’s a well-deserved vacation around the corner. Thank you all for your efforts, and have a Great Summer!

Per

This year “the teaching day” (undervisningsdagen) will be held in cooperation with K1. It will be arranged over two half days instead of one. The first session is planned before lunch October 1st and the second October 14th (same time). The reason for the two-day-seminar is that we have to coordinate it both in K1 and K2’s schedule. On October 14th participators from the other medical schools in Norway will hold lectures about E-learning experiences. Digital exam is about to be introduced and it will be interesting to learn about how other institutions have tackled this. Another Teaching day focus is the new Medical school curriculum and how it will affect all the lecturers at the institute. One of several key topics in the new plan is students’ skill requirements and how to enforce them. This means several important areas need to be discussed and agreed upon. A big Thanks to the K2 teaching day committee Harald Wiker and Torbjørn Jonung. They have planned an interesting and relevant program.

Participation is mandatory for teachers and lecturers. Please put the two dates in your calendar right away!

During my period at K2 I have yet to come across a colleague who is not great and dedicated, either they have been research fellows, post doctorates, scientists, technicians, administrative staff or professors.

There is a staggering amount of competence at our institute. The infrastructure is good, and eventually all the different departments will be able to move into new sites.

With the good conditions, it has been truly inspiring to see the first results of K2´s new structure. One of the measuring parameters especially interesting to me is the increase in applicants. In the planning process we thought we were ambitious in our estimates of contributors to increase by 30 %. The most recent calculations show an increase of 45%. This is a clear sign of the difference all of you make every day -you made it happen! You are a force to be reckoned with, in a competitive international arena.

It’s sad then, when the focus is on contribution margins, when we should be celebrating our results which are science and research led. Contribution margins are governed by politicians, and an important component of the financing of our institute. However, the decisions are led by politicians, while the institute management can focus on influencing (politicians), and argue in favour of full finance packets, in those arenas available to us.

Within the field of teaching K2 has shown its credentials, winning multiple prices and awards, we have dedicated teachers strategically placed in the new semester board, these are important premise providers of future education within the field of medicine.

Talk each other up! You’re only as good as the company you keep, therefore cheer your colleagues on. I find that the best reward is rather accolades from a colleague, than an acquaintance. Motivate each other, work is so much more fun smiling. If it doesn’t quite go to plan, make sure you have each others backs. The support you can give a colleague is invaluable for the work environment.
It’s a fact. All scientists have been rejected at some point, it helps up and coming scientist if you share your experience, help them along by not giving up.

A hope I know I share with many of you, is to recruit more women scientists. The female share is embarrassingly low, so here’s my cry of hope for the future: get more of those brilliant women here!

I wish you all the best of luck with all your exciting projects, the new study schedule within farmacy and medicine the coming years. It’s been a great joy to be a part of K2. New (and greener) pastures await me at the institute of Biology. I do hope we can find projects to work for both institutes in the future. You are all welcome to visit me at Marineholmen.

Enjoy your weekend,
Kindly,
Synnøve

This is a continuation of the editorial from last week focusing on the new TDI-model (full costs model for all activities). The model consists of both indirect costs and Research Infra-structure Resources (RIR) implemented by UiB and which the institutes now build up their project budgets from.

It is nice that we have received written comments from enthusiastic scientists at our institute.  Two of these are now published as commentaries in this K2 news (after approval and wish by the scientists).   

We also want to emphasize that the TDI model is something presented by the The Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR) in close collaboration by the RCN, NTNU and all other universities in Norway.  The faculties have implemented this model for all project plannings from 01.01.2015.  So we have to live with this for the near future.  

It will be interesting to take part in the coming report from the project ”Forskningsbevilgninger og gavemidler”  Nr. 2014/02.  This report will hopefully soon be available and will certainly represent an overall policy and provide guidelines with basis in rules and regulations. 

Roland

Overhead – Indirect costs
The Devil is known by many names, and so are these concepts that scientists often don’t like, but still have to deal with. Why do I
adress this in an editorial in K2Nytt? Well, because this is a very
significant part of the department’s finances, that we are so utterly
dependent on.
But what do these terms mean? The University of Bergen has implemented the TDI model (total direct and indirect costs) that we are now budgeting for projects based on. This model consists of both indirect costs (overhead) and direct costs like research infrastructure. As of today, the indirect costs of a scientific FTE is 413.000 NOK and for a technical / administrative FTE it is 114.000 NOK. The indirect costs are the costs of infrastructure such as offices and common areas, services like the library, IT, administrative and financial management, safety, training, legal assistance, documentation and so forth. The direct costs are another component of the total cost model (TDI). This is composed of investment and depreciation of instruments, service contracts, general laboratory costs, including rent and technical support – called the research infra-structure resource cost (RIR). The Department of Clinical Science has calculated the RIR-cost for 2015 to be 95.000 NOK per FTE. The RIR-cost include technical support to get laboratories ready, laboratory costs like gloves, gas, pipette tips, etc. – the common infrastructure costs. The Department of Clinical Science is currently the department with the largest portfolio of externally financed projects on MOF. The NFR and EU/H2020 projects are exemplary in the way that they contribute overhead funds that cover the costs the department incurs to be able to operate the project. But what happens when indirect costs are not part of the grant for the projects? Who must then pay? Well, then it will be the Department in collaboration with the Faculty that takes the costs. In this way the Department’s economy is continuously weakened whenever a project with zero overhead is accepted. What can we do about this? Do we have to refuse projects that do not include overhead? How long will it take to get a new “culture” – changing the attitudes of contributors? How do we achieve it? These questions concern us all together!

Roland