Category Archives: This week’s editorial

Ups, we did it again

bilde (1)

 

 

Last September we learned that Jan Haavik (Biomedicine) and Stefan Johansson landed their first Horizon 2020-project called MiND in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie program, under the pillar Excellent Science. Soon after, Gunnar Mellgren received an ERA-NET grant for a project aiming at studying cancer-preventive effects of diabetes drugs. Both ERA-NET and IMI are specific programs with a thematic focus, thus complementing H2020. With 2 granted projects out of 5 applications, K2 did very well.

Now the results from the first announcement of health-related research projects in Horizon 2020 are being published. Helga Salvesen obtained a grant for a cancer project tied to the pillar Societal Challenges called Female cancer prediction using cervical omics to individualise screening and prevention (FORECEE). Helse Bergen is partner, while UiB represented by K2 is associated partner, so-called 3rd party. Recently we also learned that Cecilie Svanes, affiliated with Center for International Health and Public Health but also a part of the thoracic medicine research group, successfully obtained a grant to study lung health across generations in European cohorts.

Last week I obtained a grant based on the application ULTRADIAN as coordinator, a project focusing on developing dynamic hormone diagnostics. Nine out of 466 applications obtained grants, which gives a success rate of 1.9%. As many as 138 of the 466 projects qualified for round 2. The EU-commission has received criticism for letting too many application through to the final round, so now the bar will be raised in future calls. Another reason for low success rates (1.9-6.9%) was that an unusual high number of applications were submitted.

All in all MOFA still has had a reasonably good start in H2020, but more grants would have been desirable. How does one succeed? Key success factors are to build or participate in strong networks with “EU-experience”, another is to involve industry (SME) as much as possible. K2 is prioritizing administrative resources to those who wish to write applications, and it is also possible to obtain positioning funds (PES) in order free time for application writing, networking, meetings and consultants.

 

Good luck with future applications

Best regards

Eystein Husebye

The evolution and revolution in academic publishing

Roland JonssonPublishing in scientific journals has for long used to be pretty straightforward. The researcher submitted manuscripts with their latest work, which was evaluated by experts in the field, type-set, printed and sold to libraries, universities and interested individuals – and this was quite profitable for some publishers.

This is not the case any longer. The ways scientific data and information is shared has changed dramatically in the digital age. Increasingly, publishers are competing by offering additional services that help the authors and readers through media organizations and science blogs. However, journals charge exorbitant fees to subscribe or download papers, restricting this to those who can afford them.

To partly solve this, free electronic scientific publishing also called “Open Access Publishing” has emerged. This grants full access to anyone, for any purpose, but transfers the publication costs to the authors or their organization. Nothing is free! However, currently UiB offers support to cover “Open Access Article Processing Charges”

A side-effect of the open access model is a malignant proliferation in junk publishers with the sole objective of making money without any regards for scientific quality. In year 2011 there were 18 identified predatory publishers, which increased to 693 in 2015. The list is updated through the year on the blog Scholarly Open Access, http://scholarlyoa.com. Take a look at this list when your mailbox is swamped by the numerous offers for publishing!

Happy New Year!

Roland Jonsson

PS. Do not forget to verify that all your works from 2014 have been added to Cristin. Check this via https://www.cristin.no/as/WebObjects/cristin.woa/8/wa/registrering?la=no. Log in by choosing institution “University of Bergen”, and then use your regular user name and password.

At the end of the year

Eystein 2

In this last editorial of the year I wish to, on behalf of the K2 leadership, to thank everyone for their efforts in 2014. A lot of great work has been accomplished in teaching, research, research education and HSE. The administration has done a great job with systematizing and simplifying various administrative procedures.

The 2015 budget has now been approved by the Faculty board. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to avoid using a big chuck of the PhD and Postdocs’ operational funds to balance the 3 million kroner budget deficit. This something which we strongly dislike! To ensure that at least some funds will be available to PhD-Candidates, we will consider transferring the funds we normally reserve for public defense expenses to the various research groups. However, this means that the research groups themselves must cover these expenses. Another important change is that, starting next year, the faculty will only cover 70% of the overhead for external projects without overhead (Except The Norwegian Cancer society Funds). This will not affect ongoing projects, but those starting after 1 January 2015. This means that the groups receiving such funding must cover the remaining 30%.

Next year The Faculty will finalise the New Medical School curriculum, starting up for first year students in 2015, and for 1st, 2nd and forth year students in 2016. The various leaders of the semester boards will, together with those responsible for the different subjects, work out the details. The recent funding obtained by many of K2’s groups will hopefully be translated into good research in the year to come. This year we have had a total of 21 public defenses at K2 (unfortunately K1 beat us with 1), but we have the highest number of new recruits to the PhD program. We will continue working on creating good meeting places in order to facilitate interaction between K2’s research groups. Last, but not least, a new Head of Department will start his or her term early next year. I am confident that this person will continue to develop K2 in a positive direction..

Now, however, it is soon Christmas and time for a well-deserved break. On behalf of the institute leadership we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Eystein

Head of Department

merry

Buoyancy

Eystein HusebyeIt is always exciting and nerve racking to wait for the results of the various grant applications every fall. This year we first learned that 2 groups received funding from the NovoNordisk Foundation. Shortly afterward a ERA-Net (Mellgren) and Marie Curie project (Johansson) was awarded to K2-researchers. Thereafter K2-researchers received large grants from The Norwegian Cancer Society. The Stian Knappskog was awarded one of the prestigious BFS-grants. This week K2-researchers have received large grants from The regional Health Authorities and NFR. The latter was divided amon 2 FRIPRO projects (Gjertsen, Njølstad), a mobility grant (Reksten), and a Young Investigator Grant (Bryceson). Altogether the NFR grants are worth 27 million NOK over 3 years. Finally, K2 captured 2 of the 3 PHD-grants announced from UiB.

 

Congratulations to all of you who have received grants. I also wantt to take the opportunity to thank all those who have helped writing these Grants. Thanks to Corina Guder and Sumathi Subramaniam for helping with grant applications, to Siv Eggereide and her team for putting together budgets and to Synnøve Myhre who has organized and overseen the work

To those of you that did not receive grants – send an improved application next year. To those of you who did not apply – do so next time!

Remember that NFR and EU grants come with overhead and are obtained in fierce competition on national and international competitors. This is very important for the K2’s economy – it now looks somewhat less bleas than last week. Next week we can worry about the budget, but this week I prefer to have a content smile

Have a peaceful weekend

Eystein

Head of Institute

Exam time and pre-Christmas activities

Eva Gerdts

So we are in advent again, and many courses will have exams before the autumn semester comes to an end on 12.12.14. This is a busy time for both students, lecturers, censors and the academic administration.  In addition, detailed planning of new curriculum for the school of medicine is ongoing.  This issue was once again on the agenda at the Faculty Board meeting on 26.11.14.  The framework for teaching and exams was approved.  In the future curriculum there will be at most 19 hours of scheduled teaching activities every week, and there will be exams at the end of each semester covering the multi-disciplinary learning goals.  In addition, at the end of 3rd and 6th year, a practical station exam (OSCE-exam) will take place.  Each semester, a semester council responsible for teaching and exam activities will be established, and K2 will be responsible for three of these semester councils, as well as for final exams on the 6th study year.  In order for the semester councils to have as strong a foundation as possible for its important work, it is now time for the heads of the academic sections, in coordination with people in charge of courses and topics, to gather lecturers and plan when and how teaching will be done of the individual topics in the new curriculum.  A detailed plan for distribution of study credits between courses in different semesters is the starting point for this important work.  The new curriculum will be implemented for first-year students from autumn 2015 and onwards, and in autumn 2016 a new curriculum will also be implemented for fourth-year students.  Thus there will be a 4-year period where teaching will follow both the new and the old curriculum.  I know that several academic sections are already well underway with this work, and it is important to finish our part of the teaching planning as soon as possible.  I kindly ask this to be sent to head of academic affairs within January 31, 2015.  Updated information on the new curriculum is available at http://www.uib.no/mofa/63484/ny-studieplan-medisinstudiet-ved-uib (in Norwegian)

Good luck with this important work!

Eva

Budget 2015

Eystein 2The University Director has just sent the budget allocation letter to MOFA. Unfortunately, it is rather depressive reading. Salary- and price compensation for UiB is set to 3%. However, as the money travels through the system to the institute, the compensation proposed to be cut to 1%.What the final figure will be will be decided in the December Faculty Board Meeting.

The size of the local salary pot was unusually big this year and K2 employees were allocated a large part of it, so much that our salary expenses will increase about 5% in total next year. This combined with a minimal number of retirements the next two years means that we will have to continue to reduce that base funding part of our budget. However, we will still try to shield the operating funds allocated PhD-students and Postdocs, but I cannot promise that we will be able to do so in 2015.

Another main issue for K2 in the budgeting process is how zero-overhead projects are to be handled. K2 is the institute with the highest number of such projects. The Faculty Board will in December also determine principles for how rent and administrative costs for such projects are to be paid. This may affect the financial situation at K2. There are signs that we will see a tightening in transferal in this area. Thus, we might very soon find ourselves in a situation where we will have to say no to certain forms of external funding.

Are there no positive cyphers you may ask? Well, there will be funds earmarked galenic pharmacy. In addition we will be have a larger budget for scientific equipment than in 2014. K2 will also be given a technical position for operating and administering the Unit for Healthy Volunteers which will launch in 2015.

Whether or not we will be able to strengthen the budget is also up to you as a K2-employee. At the top of my wish list is funding of some of our many EU- and NFR-applications. It is great to know that K2 is the UiB institute with the highest number of EU-applications this year; hopefully some will be translated into project funding. These are the projects that can strengthen the financial situation at K2. Let’s just hope our prayers are answered.

Wishing you all a balanced 2015

Eystein

Head of Department

HSE-seminar with buoyancy

bilde (1)Many agree that this year’s HSE-seminar was «the best HSE-seminar ever».  We enjoyed a diverse programme consisting of group sessions with problem solving, a “feel good” seminar with Marco Elsafadi, and a panel debate on the issue – how can K2 become a better place to work?
The HSE-seminar is somewhat similar to Christmas services, it is nice and pleasant to hear about baby Jesus in the crib and sing Christmas carols, but then we forget about it until next Christmas.  This time I want at least some of the lessons and ideas to be remembered and implemented.

Marco Elsafadi talked about his experiences as an athlete and as head of a company, focusing on politeness and generosity.  He talked about Daniel who always greeted others by name, made coffee, and created a pleasant working environment around himself; about laughter and generosity.  It might sound like fluff for “hard core scientists”, but it is actually important that people are happy – the joy of work will increase, and productivity and creativity will rise.  You are all encouraged to greet everyone you meet at K2, and also to learn the name of someone you do not know.

The panel debate was constructive and engaging.  An issue raised by several contributors was common meeting areas.  The K1/K2 seminars and K2-news are both examples of meeting areas which I believe functions well.  Helge Ræder suggested a discussion forum such as Harvard catalyst.  As we do not have the possibility to create our own intranet at K2, we have this week launched the group “K2 katalysator” on Facebook as our “intranet”.  The idea is that the Facebook forum can work as a “water hole” where K2 people can discuss/ask about collaborations, advice when the PCR-reaction do not work, or put in a request for equipment or chemical badly needed.  Further, the page may be used to announce academic and social activities as well as to discuss other scientific or social issues related to K2.  You are all hereby invited to participate!

We will also present the summaries of the various group sessions at the HMS-seminar in upcoming issues of K2-news so that this work will not be forgotten either.  Thus, HSE is on the agenda throughout the entire year.

I wish you all a productive weekend and week.

Eystein Husebye

Acting Head of Department

Instrumentation at Department of Clinical Science

Roland JonssonDepartment of Clinical Science has a great repertoire of more or less advanced scientific instruments. Officially all equipment placed in the space of the institute belongs to the university. Everybody is certainly welcome to use them but we should exploit this with care. In addition, certain rules have to be followed – below these are listed:

Golden rules for users of instruments at Department of Clinical Science

• Always ask for permission to use an instrument before you start using it.

• Contact details for the person responsible for the instrument are noted on the instrument or at the entrance of the room where it is placed.

• Always obtain proper training before using the equipment.

• Always report to the person responsible for the instrument if experiencing problems.

• Always register in the user book belonging to the instrument.

The complete list of instrumentation belonging to our institute can be seen here:

It is important for us to keep the lists for new instrumentation updated. When you have received a new instrument – please report this to Kjerstin.Jakobsen@k2.uib.no

Also wishes for new instruments/equipment can be sent/delivered to Kjerstin.Jakobsen@k2.uib.no

Please note that equipment belonging to our three core facilities is under the auspices of the core facility staff and with their own administration.

Good luck with all technicalities

Roland

Are we in control of the system, or are we its slaves? – some thoughts prior to the Health-Safety –Environment (HSE) seminar

Eystein 2Next week it is again time for the annual K2 HSE-seminar. As an attendant you will learn more about cooperation and work joy – important factors which contribute to making K2 a good place to work.
I am currently reading Sapiens – a Brief History of Humankind written by Israeli historian Yuval Harari. The book presents a fascinating overview of the history of Homo Sapiens – the wise human – or to use Harari’s expression: The deadliest species in the annals of biology.
One of the major upheavals in our history was the agricultural revolution which occurred in the Middle East approximately 12000 BC. Prior this this, Homo Sapiens was a hunter and gatherer (forager) moving around to wherever food was available. The agricultural revolution was brought about by knowledge on how to grow and cultivate wheat. Traditionally this is portrayed as a major historical advancement but Harari asks the question: did humans take control of the wheat or did the wheat take control of humans? The agricultural revolution made Homo Sapiens into relatively immobile farmers who had to work more and harder – sow, weed, fertilize and irrigate under a merciless sun. From being a relatively free individual capable of moving around and gather and hunt a diverse diet, the food now became less varied, and he/she became more vulnerable to how climate and weather affected the crops. As a result, malnutrition, hunger and death were constant threats. Furthermore unaccustomed, repetitive and unphysiological tasks brought new diseases and ailments related to strain. However, the great advantage was more efficient food production providing enough food to feed many more mouths. Cities and societies grew around the farming fields, but with them came disease and wars. The presumed advancement, which quickly turned out to be irreversible, had a lot of negative side effects.
Many parallels can be drawn to recent history. When I started working with research as a student we did not have PCs, www, or e-mail, all of which today have become indispensable (?) aids. Before, a letter would be written if one had something important to say. Now all of us spew out e-mails in at an ever increasing rate and quantity. Are we in control of the IT-revolution or have we become its slaves? – and how does this affect HSE at K2?
This is something we can perhaps think about while we await the HSE-seminar on November 05.
See you there!
Eystein Husebye
Acting Head of Department

Norwegian Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine

Eystein Husebye6 October came with the news that May-Britt and Edvard Moser together with the British neuroscientist John O’Keefe were this year’s winners of the Nobel Price in Physiology or Medicine, a fantastic achievement. The UiB newsletter “På Høyden” comments in an article 8 October that it is not only the researchers themselves that have been focused in their work, the research leaders at NTNU, The Norwegian Research Council of Norway and the Ministry of Education and Research, and The Kavli Foundation have all pulled in the same direction, providing close to 600 million Norwegian kroners to the Moser group until now.

However, the success is not only about funding. A good framework and research-promoting environment is also paramount. One of the factors that professor May-Britt Moser mentions is mobility and temporary positions. She asks: Would the Norwegian football team Rosenborg have had so much success if every player had a permantent employment? The best research groups have a lot of mobility – people come and go; only the very best stay on and built their own groups. Her conclusion is that Norway needs to apply the American tenure track system. Young talents should have a 5-7 year period to qualify for a permanent position, and not everybody will succeed.

The minister of Education and Research now invites our Universities to a dialogue on how to improve Norwegian research. We have the chance to argue for increased mobility and how to foster an environment that can create new success stories such as the Moser’s have. It is therefore my hope that it will not take 113 years before the next Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to a Norwegian researcher working in Norway.

Eystein Husebye

Acting Head of Department

Skill training in the medicine curriculum

Eva GerdtsIt is time for moose hunting and autumn break, and practical skills are probably useful in both. In the professional medicine curriculum, training of practical skills is also important. Many of these skills were earlier obtained during the medical internship (turnustjenesten), but must now be incorporated into the study curriculum. A national competence list is being worked out and will provide guidelines for what skills must be taught in the medicine curriculum, also here at UiB. However, we as academic lecturers, have to organize and quality assure training in these skills within the curriculum.

Practical training periods at collaborative hospitals are important arenas for skill training, as well as the skill laboratory. On 17.09.14 we conducted a meeting on harmonization of requirements regarding skills and skill training in the 3rd medical term, and a new approval card is currently being developed, and will be introduced starting spring 2015. Remember that the requirements for completed service are, together with exams, what guides the students’ learning and training. In cooperation with K1, an expert group has now been established with the responsibility of developing the training which will be offered at the skill center. Head of this group is Associate Professor Steinar Skrede. Do you have any input as to what skills should be focused on related to your own teaching area? If so, please initiate a discussion on this topic with other teachers in your area.

A final thank you from the outgoing editor

This week’s K2Nytt is my last as editor. Starting next week, Ida Wergeland will take control over the editorial staff. In that respect I want to say a few words.

I started as co-editor in IFI-info in the autumn of 2012, with responsibility for the publications, and took over as editor in the autumn of 2013. In the two years I have been a part of the editorial staff there have been three major changes with our newsletter. The two first was mainly carried out by K2Nytt’s previous editor, André Sulen.

First, we created an English version of the newsletter, which essentially doubled the work load of the editorial staff, but was a great improvement because it became easier for our international colleagues and students to keep track of what is going on at the institute.
Then the faculty was completely reorganised at New Year’s 2012/2013. This turned IFI-info into K2Nytt. The gathering of research groups that used to be on different departments gave us more viewpoints on how the newsletter should be. We have tried to make K2Nytt into a newsletter for everyone, regardless of the department they belonged to before the reorganisation, and I hope we have succeeded at that.

In the autumn of 2013 we implemented the third major change. The server in which K2Nytt (and IFI-info) used to be stored was closed, and we had to find a new way to make the newsletter. We decided to use a blog format with WordPress. The transition itself took considerable work, but for the editorial staff it was a great improvement compared to the old PDF-format, since the editing of K2Nytt became much easier and more efficient. At the same time, the blog format is less flexible, and we did not manage to make it look just the way we wanted. Hopefully, this is something that can be improved in the future.

Finally, I want to mention the editorial staff. The total workload of making K2Nytt is about 1,5-3 days per week. This work is divided between a team of competent people. The editor, as well as Kristian Jensen, write and translate the texts, Lars Emil Mossefinn and Klaus Rehberg publish the texts and find suitable illustrations, Olivera Bozickovic takes care of the publications and finds a new PhD-comics (K2Nytt’s weekly highlight) and Irene Lavik Hjelmaas keeps control of the pages in the overhead menu and helps out when needed. In addition, Corina Guder collects application deadlines and meetings/courses of interest for the Department’s employees and students. Our new editor, Ida, has been an extra back-up in case of disease. I would like to thank you all for the great work you have done this last year, and for making the job as editor fun and rewarding!
Additionally, I want to thank the readers for your patience, for tipping us of things to write about, and for good and constructive feedback!

At last, I want to wish Ida good luck as editor in the months ahead!

Christine Haugen
Outgoing editor of K2Nytt

Cooperation between academia and the pharmaceutical industry

Roland JonssonMore collaboration between academia and the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly encouraged, not least through Horizon 2020. This innovative possibility to strengthen the research with our university clinics has not been sufficiently utilized.  The Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Norway (LMI) may, in this context, provide assistance in establishing such collaboration. LMI represents about 60 membership companies consisting of both international companies as well as smaller biotech enterprises. The companies employ approximately 4000 highly skilled staff where some membership companies also have their own production in Norway.

Demographic changes and an altered panorama of diseases provide the healthcare sector with challenges demanding better utilization of resources, higher efficiency as well as new and improved services. New technology and product development are keys to face new demands, maintain the quality of the health services as well as meet expectations for good welfare services and proper treatments. Within these challenges there is also a major potential for the creation of wealth and innovation. Biomedical and health-related research can meet these health challenges.

What characterizes the current situation? Sure, we have high research activity, but low innovation and way too low inclusion of the private sector. From the HelseOmsorg21 (in Norwegian) strategy we are encouraged to: Increase cooperation between the private and public sectors. More focus on commercialization of research. Increase the number of industrially funded clinical studies. The utilization of health data as a national asset.

The politicians thus have to provide the foundations for increasing the number of start-ups, as well as provide proper development conditions for Norwegian health industry. Simultaneously, the pharmaceutical industry is aiming for higher productivity and scientific excellence. This could be something that our PhD-candidates and post-docs could embrace in their career planning.

Roland