The Lab Animal Facility is the foundation for essential parts of the research at the Faculty. K1 is responsible for this unit. The financial situation of the Facility must be consolidated. This will be accomplished through internal efficiency and saving measures, as well as through increasing rates on housing and services.

The most demanding research operations at the Faculty, in terms of funding and scientific competence, are organized as core facilities. All core facilities have their own base budget, but a large part of their financing comes from renting services and infrastructure to research groups. The budget encompasses not only daily operations, but also purchasing and maintaining equipment. New scientific possibilities are to be developed and implemented. The financial model will be based on accounting numbers and follow the principles shared by all core facilities.

The Lab Animal Facility will have to initiate two parallel processes to achieve a better budget balance. Revenues must be increased, meaning higher rates on user payments. The Animal Lab Facility must also save more money compared to current daily operations, particularly on salary expenses.

The demand for budget improvement for the forthcoming year is 1.5 million NOK. The Lab Animal Facility and the financial sections will look into the practical consequences of this demand. New facility user rates will be decided in a few weeks. The role of user input in terms of work load and participation on projects will be defined in each project and play a part in the financial discussion. It is important that research groups, departments and The Lab Animal Facility all co-operate during initial application processing to determine a correct calculations of costs as well as pre-assuring necessary capacities. Low priority projects and/or projects with a weak funding base may be denied. In applications for competition-exposed funding, expenses for using The Lab Animal Facility must be calculated correctly.

Researchers, The Animal Lab Facility and its academic advisory group and department management will be the principal participants in the scientific priorities implied in this process. The economic framework for the enterprise and demands for financing and budgets will be more clearly formulated by K1 in dialogue with the Faculty and other departments. The base funding for K1 and the Faculty has developed in such a way that it bears direct impact on daily operations.

Alongside handling the difficult budget situation of today, it is important to assess available academic resources regarding competence and practical functions. The task of The Lab Animal Facility is to contribute actively to research in the forefront of the international biomedical science fields.

Nils Erik Gilhus                        Rolf K. Reed                                Eystein S. Husebye
Head of Department K1             Head of Department IBM               Head of Department K2

Health research in register epidemiology and studies of the general population have yielded important public health information both nationally and locally. In recent years, various fields such as health research on nutrition and vaccine development have contributed to increased activity in clinical trials on humans. In addition, Norway has advantages which make possible unique population-based studies on various medicinal drugs. In order to enhance existing research, and to enable new research on humans, the University of Bergen and Helse Bergen wish to establish a trial unit, which satisfies the demands required for clinical studies of high quality.

The work group tasked with assessing this possibility was established at the faculty in June 2013. The group has now submitted a proposal. Using a pilot study and experiences from the Research Post for Adults (Helse Bergen) as a starting point, the group has worked out a report which outlines a clinical trial unit meant to provide service to increasing activities in health research in the years to come. It is the opinion of the work group that the collaboration between the university and the health institution in such a research unit will stimulate to more research of highest international quality in the years to come. Department of Clinical Science has been given responsibility for this unit, which follows the same guidelines as the faculty’s core facilities. If anyone wishes to register a project, please notify K2’s Head of Administration, Synnøve Myhre.

Roland

Exams are over, public defenses completed, and a long summer vacation is awaiting most of us. On behalf of the leader group, I would like to thank the institute’s employees for their continuous efforts to teach, publish and develop the academic disciplines they represent. For all of this to run smoothly, we must have daily routines that functioning. Both the administration and the study section are continuously working to improve these routines to make life easier for you. Klaus and Lars in the K2-reception are acknowledged for always helping out with all kinds of small and big jobs.

We can now report half way into 2014 that the K2 budget is in balance, although still very tight as we have to set aside funds pay debts from 2013. Despite these difficulties we will be able to allocate more funds to the PhD and postdocs. If the current situation prevails, we will be able to renew about 50% of vacant positions. The recruitment process we have had this spring will provide the priorities for future recruitment.

The basis of our existence is the teaching of students enrolled in the professional studies and in the bachelor and master programs. We now have a special focus on teaching and will propose several actions in order to enhance teaching quality. One such action is K2’s teaching award, which is announced in this issue of K2nytt. Other efforts will be presented and discussed at the teaching seminar scheduled for September 17, where all K2-lecturers are expected to participate.
However, first and foremost I hope everyone enjoys a nice summer vacation

Link to statutes for education award (in norwegian)

Warm regards

Eystein

There is a need to implement new, student-activating teaching and learning methods. The medical faculties are collaborating on a national platform for e-learning resources (in Norwegian). It is important that we here at K2 contribute so that this website becomes a good e-learning resource for our students. There is much pre-made content already available online for medical examination techniques and methods. In order to get ideas, you may, for instance, see Oxford Medical Education or Geeky Medics or Youtube. Several producers of web content have granted MOF permission to reuse their material. Have you found something which may be used in your student teaching, and wish to have this dubbed in Norwegian language or have comments added? You may then contact Eirik Dalheim who will clarify copyright issues and other formalities. Eirik will also assist you in adjusting the contents to your needs. Remember that all course changes must be approved by the person in charge of the course.

Good luck!

Eva

The application deadline for NFR, free research grants, is now passed, and a total of 18 applications were sent from K2. This is about a third of the applications from MOF. It is an impressive effort from many. We will do an evaluation of the support the institute gave to the applicants. We will come back to that.

It is, however, a paradox that we are mobilising so much effort for funding with low acceptance rate, while many of us are not aware of other NFR research programs where the acceptance rate is much higher than in the free research grants. I will therefore strongly urge people to check other calls from NFR, to see if they may have projects that fit these calls.

The next application round is to The Norwegian Cancer Society, with deadline June 2. I encourage all who plan to apply to notice that the project money from the Cancer Society does not cover rent and administration costs which incur automatically on all externally financed positions. The faculty has agreed to cover these costs, but only if it is cleared in beforehand. It means that the institute, Siv, must get a message BEFORE the application is sent about all the positions that is being applied for. Rent and administration costs (contribution margin) on granted positions without pre-applied clearing must be covered by the applicant.

Per

K2 has had an internal process with support for selected NFR application this spring. This does not mean that others cannot apply NFR. But this year all budgeting of NFR application must follow the so-called TDI model. TDI stands for Total, Direct and Indirect costs (the total cost model) and is based on the government’s goal to make all direct and indirect costs of a research project visible. The Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions (UHR) has worked on the development of a national model for generally making total costs in research projects more visible. Among the contributors to this process are NTNU, UoB, UiO, SINTEF and NFR.

At MOF work has been done to implement this TDI model and which concrete effects it will have when the budgets are created. The goal is to get a common method of calculation and common rates at the different institutes. The objective will not be reached before the NFR applications are sent in, but the rule that all applications will be budgeted according to the TDI model will stand.

This means that all who will send in NFR applications in May must get their budget approved by the economy section at K2. The economy section will assist in making the budgets according to the TDI model. The internal deadline at K2 to get the budget quality assured according to the TDI model is May 14th. Those who come to the economy section with budget for NFR applications after this date will not be able to send the applications via K2.

If anything is unclear, contact Siv in the economy section.

Per

For the most part of last year, the financial situation at K2 was a recurring topic in this column and at various meetings. The general tone was that there was a large deficit. As late as November last year, I presented a prognosis which showed that by 2017 we would accumulate a total deficit of kr 18 million, even if we phase out all current positions where natural retirement will occur. After meetings with the Dean’s office we received a permanent compensation for part of our salary expenses.

This, in addition to us cutting expenses to the bone, has resulted in K2 achieving financial balance by March this year. The salary expenses reveal an underutilization of 0.5 million NOK in relation to the budget, which is caused by leave of absences and sick leaves. The prognosis thus predicts that the financial situation at K2 will be in balance this year.

The final deficit last year turned out to be kr 3.1 million. We are in dialogue with the faculty regarding a back-payment plan for this. Even though the situation remains tight, we are about to acquire control of the financial situation. The next goalwill be a situation where the institute has room for financial maneuvering. I will return with more information about this.

Per