The IT unit at UoB has developed a secure system for handling of sensitive personal information in research. The system is called SAFE. SAFE is the preferred system for all internally and externally financed research projects at UoB handling sensitive personal information. K2 supports this.

K2 research groups which already have data stored at the server at Haukeland University Hospital do not have to move their data, but can still use this server. The important issue is that this kind of data are stored according to the requirements. Storing sensitive personal information at a PC is not allowed, even if the data should be unidentified.

A significant advantage with SAFE is that is allows not only storing but also statistical handling of the data. According to statisticians at IGS, SAFE is very good system. More information about it may be found here (in Norwegian).

Per

The university has an increased focus on correct affiliation, not only related to publications, but also in contact with the press. In the latter case, it is important to check that we are addressed by the name of the institute and then University of Bergen. You may also want to first state the name of the research group, and that is of course OK. As to the title, we for are for instance professor at the Department of Clinical Science, UoB. Those who are also employed by the for instance Haukeland University Hospital or Stavanger University Hospital may be consultant, while not professor at the hospitals.

One may argue that the press will not accept such an affiliation as it is too extensive. However, Laurence Bindoff at K1 is a recent example that this is quite possible. When his research was presented in VG, he was addressed with Department of Clinical Medicine, UoB.
A good advice is to review the text prior to publication and this is an opportunity to also check the affiliation. My experience is that also the journalists want the content of their papers to be correct.

Per

The Department Management and Administration will take new paths to get research funding. In June the management lead by Per Bakke will embark on a 3-week trip to the world’s highest ranked universities, including Harvard, NIH, the Mayo Clinic and an elite university in Hawaii. The institute’s research will be presented and the management will learn more about how to apply for funding from the United States, including from the NIH and the industry.

The trip, including stay, board and travel (5 star hotels and business class due to tight itinerary) comes to about 500 000 NOK. This may seem expensive, but the potential is huge and we choose to use our leeway like this instead of hiring a research consultant .

The management wants 1-2 persons from the permanent academic staff to join the trip. For more information, or to register your interest, follow this link.

Eystein

These days we learn about Danish and Finnish universities that have to cut their budgets by 5-10% and lay off hundreds of employees. Fortunately this is not the case in Norway. UoB has to reduce its budget by NOK 70-100 mill as part of the efficiency program of the government. This is just a very minor part of the budget. However, it may still be wise to assess the way the university is run. UoB has established a “Steering group for development of efficient and future-oriented administrative and technical services”.

This sounds very boring and bureaucratic, and we may think that this has nothing to do with me. But it does and to a great extent. For instance, recruitment procedures, travel documents and establishing exams are tasks we are all engaged in. More important than making these tasks cheaper, is to improve their quality. This is why the work of this steering group is important to all of us, and I am sure that we will hear more from it.

In the meantime Easter is coming up, and I hope that we can all relax and have a good time.
Happy Easter!

Per

I grew up in a school system with a fairly even distribution of boys and girls with equal skills.

When I was a medical student (early 80s) we were also equally distributed (as opposed to the current situation with 70% girls), but the lecturers were essentially men, and women professors were a rare breed. (I can actually remember that Professor May-Elin Koller of the anesthesia department made an impression as an almost solitary swallow.) In gynecology I have always had many female colleagues and at KK the management also has a dominance of women now.

When I stepped into the University function however, it was like tugging “back to the 80s”: I experience that I am the almost single swallow! Look around your section: How many research groups, platforms or centres of excellence have female leaders? And in middle management, how is the situation there? In the hospital we can clearly see how male nurses largely possess such positions, and how is it for the Medical Laboratory Scientists?

Is this inequality a problem? Should we just sit around and wait for all the current female students and PhD students to grow up an hope that it will then even out? Or should we have an active equality policy where this is on the agenda? A friendly push; actively encourage women to apply for management positions (yes you ARE good enough!) and employ them! Should we have affirmative action? We are currently writing a new strategy document. Should a greater proportion of women in the scientific positions be an objective? If we do not mention it,it means we do not find it important (enough) to work towards. It is a choice.

Jone

Drafts for the Jebsen applications have been assessed by an external committee and four of the applicants have been invited to submit full applications. These are Eva Gerdts, Per Eystein Lønning, Eystein Husebye and Bjørn Tore Gjertsen. Even if this is just the first hurdle to pass and no success is guaranteed I am pleased to note that all of them are researchers at K2.

In a previous editorial Eystein has described the K2-review process for those who have submitted drafts of NFR applications. The review process includes an open meeting at which the applicants will be given feedback on their draft from experienced researchers. I encourage also those of you who have not submitted a draft, to attend the meeting. It is highly possible that that you may pick up valuable advices as to how to write an application. This applies to whether you are a PhD, post doc or sit in a fixed position.

Per

The new K2-strategy for 2016-18 is under development. The strategy plan is based on the suggestions brought forward at the K2 strategy seminar in January. At the seminar the leaders of the research groups and the platforms, as well as the members of the institute council participated. Afterwards, the department management has developed the plan further. The architect behind the plan is Vidar Steen. The plan is divided into sections on research, teaching, recruitment, infrastructure and competence, as well as HSE. Vidar has argued that the various aims in the strategy plan should be Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time specific (SMART). The plan covers slightly more than one-1- page. This is so short that we will  hopefully remember it and make use of it.

The strategy plan attached to this editorial is the current version of the plan. It should be stressed that it is not final. I want everybody, you included, to read it and comment on it. All comments are welcomed. Send you comments to Irene within Friday, March 4th. The department management will then revise the plan and discuss it with the extended management team of the department. The final version of the plan will be approved by the Institute Council.

Per

Well, then you must at least apply!

The intention of small assets (SMÅFORSK) is to support groups that do not have major funding, to enable them to start new projects. SMÅFORSK is a joint funding from the NRC and the University of Bergen and it has to be used the year it is granted. Applicants can ask for covering of costs of travels, workshops, courses, material, technical and administrative assistance and other operating expenses. In line with the intentions, it is a requirement that the applicant is a permanent employee and an 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 last two 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 applied for other external research funding in 2015
• The funding is for one year and have to be used within the fiscal year, as the funds are not transferable to the next year.
• The funds will be granted to research groups that do not already have large assets
• Documentation on how the funds will be spent must be presented

Don’t do like he in the parable of the talents that buried it. Use SMÅFORSK to invest in larger future grants.

Good luck!

The Research Committee at the Department of Clinical Science allocates funds at the next meeting. Send applicaton forms to Siv Johnsen Eggereide siv.eggereide@uib.no
Deadline: 1st March 2016

Applicationform

Eystein Husebye
Deputy Manager

Helga

Tuesday was Helga’s funeral. The church at Storetveit was full to the brim. Several hundred people attended. The funeral was a beautiful, warm and a dignified farewell to Helga. For me the lasting memory is of her husband Pål and their fantastic sons who all held moving eulogies for Helga.

I have thought a lot about what Pål said in the church: Helga left life, but she did not leave us.

These are strong words. Although Pål might have meant their family by using the word “us”, I think it applies to us all. And that we should all try to follow up her example. Helga was exceptional at seeing those around her and giving them positive feedback. We can all learn from her.

Academia is very competitive, and so it should be. However, while fighting for positions and resources we should not forget that we are all vulnerable human beings. We must all try to take care of each other, including those who seem to always excel. That would be a dignified and fitting way to honour Helga’s legacy.
Per

Did you see the medical students with their green name plates on their white coats and expectant but uncertain gazes, swarming around the various departments January 13th and 14th?

THANK YOU for taking such good care of them! I have had the pleasure of reading their reports, which confirm that they were well taken care of by the entire chain of healthcare professionals that they met: the porter who showed them the right way through the tunnel, the biomedical laboratory scientist who patiently explained that this particular instrument measured hemoglobin, the nurse who looked after the student who nearly fainted in the examination room and all the doctors who explained why they said and did everything during an entire workday.

Getting this first insight into a day at a hospital, observing lots of good interaction and seeing that we all have our place in the diagnostic and treatment chain have given them an important insight into the life of a doctor. Observation of the doctor-patient meetings without the requirement of direct academic learning provides an opportunity for good role models; this is building professionalism!

Getting their noses out of the books and into the staff and patient rooms has aroused motivation; they see that also basic knowledge is necessary to understand complex medical conditions.

The fact that the same students will be back at your department, brings confidence for both them and us. It also provides an opportunity for the individual student’s local supervisor to follow her / him over time. In that situation it will also be easier to see if a student struggles, either with acquiring academic knowledge or with personal problems.

The students describe a wide range of pleasant workplaces that take good care of the workers, which is primarily a benefit for us who work there every day. Let us continue to be attentive to each other also when we are not showing our “best side” with a student in tow.

Jone

In the K2 editorial last week Roland informed that he will leave the position as vice chair for research at the institute. He has had the position since K2 was established three years ago. Roland has done a great job to promote research within the institute. He has also done a significant effort to put focus on working groups with relevance for PhD training and also on supervisor training, both nationally and at an international level. Roland has also contributed significantly to the integration of the various parts of the four old institutes into one. Well done Roland!

The new vice chair for research is Helge Ræder. He is a professor within Pål’s research group, and holds a BFS grant. I am sure that he will follow up the good work started by Roland to promote research at K2.

Per

At this time of the year the departments are preparing for their reports to the faculty – and I then particularly think about the PhD training and research reports. These are important documents that the faculty uses to inform and update the University centrally on their performance and long-term strategies. These reports therefore contribute to communicate the departments’ thoughts, desires and needs to UiB. Is there anything new to report or is this just the same litany as last year? Yes, there are actually new elements that have been added. For instance, what has the department accomplished when it comes to internationalization, career planning and publication? Although publications are always metioned, it will now be put more in focus. It will be especially important for Department of Clinical Science to focus on publishing, since we have had a decrease in the number of publications since 2013. But we’ve had a very good progress on external funding – not least the EU and NFR – which hopefully will result in increased publishing further on.

This is my last editor of “K2Nytt” since I after a 3-year appointment as Research Director / Deputy Head of Research at Department of Clinical Science is going to focus on other tasks. I will therefore take this opportunity to thank you all for three rewarding and exciting years – for good cooperation within the management team, the Research Committee, with the PhD coordinator and everyone I have been in contact with. Besides my responsibility as head of Broegelmann Research Laboratory and the research group for immunology and rheumatology, I have also been involved in several inspiring and stimulating working groups with direct relevance for PhD training and research. As I have previously mentioned in my editorials, I have participated in the OU-7 report on PhD training at UiB, the report on supervisor training at UiB (delivered to the university administration before Christmas), and I have also taken part of the UHR appointed national career group, and not least the ongoing international work carried out within ORPHEUS. So I will have enough to do also in the future.

Thank you,

Roland

I hope you have had a pleasant rest during Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The previous editorial mentioned that it is time for a new strategy plan for K2. The last two days the chairs of the research groups, the institute council, as well as representatives for various groups at the institute have been assembled to discuss a new strategy for K2. The new plan has to take into account the overall strategy documents of the university and the faculty, and also that of the university hospital.

The goals of the new strategy plan should be specific, measureable, ambitious, realistic and achievable within a given time. We will try to make a one page plan so that it is easy to understand and will be taken into account. When the draft of the plan is ready it will be presented in K2Nytt for comments from you. The final version will be approved by the Institute council.

Per