The annual Teaching Day was successfully conducted on May 19^th in collaboration between K2 and K1, with good attendance. I want to thank all of you who contributed to making this into a great day!

Heiko Bratke

The K2 Teaching Prize was awarded to Heiko Bratke at section for pediatrics at Haugesund Hospital. He was awarded the prize for developing a well-structured digital educational content in MittUiB during the pandemic.

Åse Bjorvatn Sævik

PhD-student Åse Bjorvatn Sævik from the Endocrinology group was awarded one of the Faculty’s teaching prizes for developing the podcast “Endopodden” as a teaching tool. This project was also selected for nomination to the UGLE prize.

Monika Kvernenes from Unit for learning also received a teaching prize from the Faculty. Monika has since 2015 worked strategically with the aim of improving teaching skills amongst teachers and lecturers at the Faculty of Medicine. At the Teaching Day, she told us about the need for basic training in teaching and how to document teaching skills end experience, a requirement which is now being reinforced.

The recent UGLE meeting discussed the organization of teaching. Vestlandslegen is being planned and will likely replace MED2015 as a programme encompassing both students who will remain in Bergen throughout their study period as well as students who will have their first 3 years in Bergen followed by 3 years in Stavanger, Haugesund or Førde.The number of students is estimated to surpass 300 over time for years 1-3.

When student numbers increase, we need to be smart. One smart move is to involve student as teachers. K2 recently attracted “corona money” dedicated to positions for students either as teachers at several courses or as “digital assistants” to assist us all in digital teaching activities.

OSCE 6 and 12 are ongoing – a great thank you to all of you (administrative staff as well as teaching staff) who make a huge effort to make this happen! Good luck with the last efforts – end of term and summer vacation are beckoning!

The Research Council of Norway has now introduced a portfolio management model which means that investments are structured along fewer and more coordinated areas with their own portfolio boards. Each portfolio board has prepared a preliminary portfolio plan which forms the basis for the Research Council’s total investments within its area. These plans were prepared on the basis of existing program plans. These plans will now be revised.

The HEALTH portfolio comprises a wide range of research and innovation projects, from outstanding open research on the international front via applied research to meet societal challenges, to research and innovation for the development of a competitive health industry.

The Faculty of Medicine is invited to provide input to the portfolio plan through two input phases:

Input phase 1 – The knowledge base

In the first input phase, the purpose is to capture trends that are important as a knowledge base for the plan. A dialogue meeting has been held with the Faculty of Medicine. The challenges were:

1. Which trends in society and research constitute a particularly important knowledge base for the portfolio plan for health?
2. What are the most important societal challenges the portfolio plan for health must help to meet?
3. What do questions 1 and 2 entail for prioritizing research topics, subjects and type of research / innovation?

K2 invited the research group leaders some weeks ago to provide input, and we have collected these and forwarded them to the Faculty. The result was that the Faculty out forward the following:

1. Personalized medicine
2. Global Health
3. Research in the primary health care service

Input phase 2 – Draft portfolio plan

The second input phase is an online hearing in December 2021 where the Research Council invites everyone who is interested to provide input to the portfolio plan. After this input phase, the portfolio plan will be presented to the portfolio board and later for approval by the Research Council’s board in June 2022.

For information, there is a preliminary portfolio plan on the Research Council’s website for the portfolio, Porteføljeplan for Helse (forskningsradet.no)

Enjoy the week-end!

Eystein is moving – he wishes everyone a beautiful weekend!

The Government’s long-term plan for research and higher education is an important, strategic tool in knowledge policy. The current long-term plan will now be revised. See here for more info about the long-term plan:

https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/forskning/innsiktsartikler/langtidsplan-for-forskning-og-hoyere-utdanning2/id2615974/

In connection with the audit, the UiB management has requested input from the faculties in two rounds:

Round 1:

The first round of input for UiB’s part is a dialogue meeting between the UiB management and KD on May 28 2021. In connection with this, the Rector has requested short and general input from the faculties. Due to a very short deadline, the K2 management has in a separate email asked the research group leaders for help in answering the following questions:

What is the most prominent development feature in the faculties’ research / fields?

Answers are requested to be sent to Silke Appel by Tuesday 25 May at 08. K2 makes a comprehensive answer which is sent to the faculty.

Round 2:

In the next round, the faculties will provide input to UiB centrally on the three questions below. These answers should be more comprehensive than those given in the first round. The research group leaders will receive a separate email about this, but K2 asks everyone to submit suggestions for answers to the research group leaders to the questions:

1. What is the most prominent development feature in the faculties’ research / fields (same as above)?
2. What is the challenge of the thematic areas in the current long-term plan?
3. What is missing in the long-term plan? Are there areas, and needs, that are not ‘covered’ by the plan’s long-term priorities and, if so, in which ones?

Answers to these three questions should be sent by the research group leaders to Silke Appel by Monday 21 June. K2 makes a comprehensive answer which is sent to the faculty.

Friday, May 21 at 13-14, there will be a digital start-up meeting for the audit round where the Minister of Education will introduce the ambitions for the plan and the process towards a completely revised plan: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/innspillsrunden-for-langtidsplanen-statsrad-asheim -invites-to-boot-fashion-21-May / id2848736 /

Wishing you a peaceful and nice Pentecost!

In 2021, UiB will be 75 years old and everyone at UiB is invited to join the celebration, see information here.

The anniversary will have “Knowledge That Shaped Society” as a theme, and will make visible our values, our strengths and our role in society, with the faculties and the University Museum as our most important arenas of knowledge. In the autumn, there will be a separate Anniversary Week 25 – 31 October, with activities and events for UiB’s students and staff, but also for a wider audience. K2 can propose contributions to the f

Faculty that will take this on to the Anniversary Committee.

K2 now asks everyone for:

1. Proposals for contributions this autumn’s Anniversary Week should be sent to the Head of Research, Silke Appel (silke.appel@uib.no) or the Head of Teaching, Mette Vesterhus (mette.vesterhus@uib.no) by 26/4.

Contributions:

• Can take place from the start of studies until the autumn and into 2021
• Can be lectures, podcasts, guided tours, debates, conversations, exhibitions, printed matter, concerts, readings, art projects, chronicles, etc

3. Not only retrospective topics, but also topics that are current, such as:
4. What role should the university play in the future in a world with fake news, alternative facts?
5. What will be the next pandemic? How should society prepare?
6. How far can one go in replacing human parts?

Hoping for many and innovative suggestions!

Have a great weekend,

Pål

Now you have the opportunity to suggest colleagues and groups that have excelled in the past year for prizes – it’s prize time! The faculty announces both research and teaching prizes and each department can nominate up to two candidates in each category, except for this year’s publication (that is 2020) where one proposal can be submitted.

The research prizes are: this year’s publication, this year’s PhD dissertation, and this year’s research and innovation environment as well as the dissemination prize. For teaching, up to three prizes are awarded for outstanding efforts in education. Of these, there is a main prize of NOK 150 000 and two prizes each of NOK 50 000.

Nominations for the research awards should be sent to The Deputy Director for Research Silke Appel (silke.appel@uib.no). Teaching award nominations should be sent to The Deputy Director for Teaching Mette Vesterhus (mette.vesterhus@uib.no). The deadline for nominations for all these awards is April 16. It would have been very nice if K2 stands out with many good nominations.

In addition, K2’s teaching prize will be awarded on the annual teaching day 19 May. Do you know anyone who has contributed to extraordinarily good student-centered teaching, or more organizationally; someone who have taken a leadership role and implemented innovative teaching programs? If so, send nominations to The Deputy Director for Teaching Mette Vesterhus us by 10 May.

You find more information on the prizes in K2-news week 12 (https://k2info.w.uib.no/).

REgarding teaching, the Norwegian Parliament has allocated a total of NOK 150 million to universities, colleges to pay students to provide academic follow-up to other students. Our faculty has received about 1 million kroner for this and the idea is that the funds will be used already this spring. Possible use is to pay experienced students to have group tuition for younger students. Here, however, the deadline is very short and the department must send proposals to the faculty as early as 12 April. Proposals are sent to Mette Vesterhus

Hoping for many nominations and proposals.

Eystein Husebye

As you may have noticed, our current Head of Administration, Julie Stavnes, is leaving. Julie has held the position for six years and has made a huge effort for the Department. Her background as a Master of Business Administration from NHH and the business community has been very useful in the demanding job of being Head of Administration for a department that is as large as several other faculties at the University of Bergen.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julie for a wonderful effort, not only administratively professionally, but also socially and as a fellow human being. I think I can say on behalf of everyone at K2 that we will miss her very much. She goes to the position of Head of Administration at BIO, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and they are very lucky.

Julie will be difficult to replace. Hence, we hope to get good applicants. If you know of any good management candidates, you need to encourage them to apply. The deadline is the weekend after Easter.

I also take this opportunity to encourage everyone to respond to the ARK survey. It is absolutely central as an instrument for improving the working environment and preventing unnecessary health, environment and safety work (HMS in Norwegian) measures. Here, all voices will count and be important. A unique aspect of the survey is that it is repeated every few years so that it is possible to map changes in the working environment over time.

Dean Per Bakke has promised a free lunch with tall sandwiches and something extra for the department with the highest response rate. K2 is used to winning and this “gold is gonna go home”. Conduct the survey today!

HAPPY EASTER AND HOLIDAYS to everyone!

This year’s awards

The Faculty of Medicine will also this year award prizes for best 2020 publication, PhD work, research / innovation environment and outstanding research dissemination as well as outstanding measures in education. The proposals will go through the departments.

We ask for proposals for this year’s prices by Friday 16 April. Send these to silke.appel@uib.no. More comprehensive information can be found here.

Announcement of incentive funds for education 2021

For 2021, the University of Bergen is announcing a total of NOK 3.3 million in searchable incentive funds for quality-enhancing measures in the educations. The purpose of the scheme is to promote projects that are innovative, in line with UiB’s strategic initiatives or that contribute to achieving national goals for study quality and implementation.

Guidelines and application are linked here. We request that applications be sent to julie.stavnes@uib.no by Wednesday 7 April. The applications will be sent to the Faculty, which forwards the applications to UiB.

PhD positions at the Pandemic Center

The Pandemic Center at the University of Bergen invites to project sketches for two PhD positions. The call is open to all academic environments at UiB. Further information about the positions, requirements for project sketches and template for application form can be found below.

https://www.uib.no/pandemi/143366/pandemisenteret-utlyser-stipendiatstillinger

K2’s teaching prize

Our Department recognizes the importance of good teaching to the extent that we have a prize awarded to the person / teaching environment that has excelled during the previous year. It can be clinical or paraclinical, within the areas for which K2 has teaching responsibility. It can be directly close to the student or more organizational; to create a new study plan. Who do you know who has contributed to extraordinarily good student teaching, or more organizationally; gone in the breeze and implemented innovative teaching programs?

Please send an email to mette.vesterhus@uib.no by 10 May regarding your candidate and a brief explanation. The Department management will then select the best candidate to receive this year’s prize, which will be awarded on the Teaching Day on 19 May. :

Finally, I will again encourage everyone to vote in the election of a new rectorate.

Have a great weekend!

Dear everyone!

Now it has been one year since Covid-19 came to Norway. We have been through several lockdowns that have had a major effect on the research, teaching and not least the entire operation of K2. We have gotten used to talking to a screen and using the kitchen table as a desk. But all of this has not stopped our PhD fellows from finishing their projects. We have had a total of 42 disputations in 2020! I congratulate all the PhD candidates (and the supervisors) who have managed to finalize their thesis despite difficult conditions. The day was probably not quite as one had imagined without the opponents present and with only a few people physically gathered, and some may have had extra technical challenges, but all in all it has gone very well. The fact that trial lectures and disputations are conducted as zoom webinar actually allows more people to follow along online. There is a lot of exciting research going on! Check https://www.uib.no/nye-doktorgrader

In that context, I would also like to say a big thank you to all of you who have been custos! For 2021, we expect similar numbers (between 35 and 40 disputations), and I hope that all our professors and associate professors are willing to take on the role of custos.

Have a good winter holiday!

The rearrangement of the NFR deadlines in combination with a new lockdown in Bergen and one of the coldest, but most beautiful winters I have experienced, certainly has brought a novel twist to 2021 thus far. While most of us come up for air after the NFR deadline, there are many more deadlines for funds, positions and positioning right around the corner, it’s a case of hold on to something tight and here we go! Firstly, I would like to highlight the possibility to apply for small research funds, which has a deadline of 14.02.21 and here are the application criteria:

• Funding for researchers who do not have large funding.
• You can apply for 15 000-150 000 NOK.
• The funds have to be used within 2021 and cannot be transferred to 2021.
• Recipient has to be an active researcher with a permanent position, prof II or 1.am. II
• The recipient must have applied for external funding during the past years

Do not forget the application deadline for PhDs (9 positions) and Postdocs (2 positions) at the Medical faculty also with a deadline of 14.02.21.

Finally, 2 exciting application possibilities in conjunction with the Trond Mohn Foundation have been published. In collaboration with Haukeland hospital, the medical faculty will fund a new center of regenerative medicine. This center will build on the existing efforts of the Bergen Stem Cell Consortium (BSCC) and the new ex vivo clean room facility at the laboratory building of the culture of cells to be utilized for clinical trial. The center will be supported by the Trond Mohn Foundation over a 5-year period and the foundation has set off 20 MNOK to support 3-4 research project within the field of regenerative medicine. Additionally, the foundation has also put aside 5 MNOK funding for collaborative projects between a Bergen – and Oslo environment in core facilities for genetically modified cell therapies in Oslo. Application details can be found here:       https://www.uib.no/sites/w3.uib.no/files/attachments/crm_prequa.pdf

In another initiative, the Trond Mohn Foundation has in collaboration with the University of Bergen, Haukeland University Hospital and Stavanger University Hospital established the West Norwegian Center for Antimicrobial Resistance (CAMRIA). The center is led by Professor Nina Langeland at K2, University of Bergen. The centre aims to shed light on the spread of resistant bacteria in hospitals, by combining new and predictive mathematical approaches with advanced molecular biology. This intersection of disciplines will allow the unprecedented characterisation and prediction of AMR spread and outbreak dynamics and the identification of optimal control strategies using the paradigm of “precision medicine”. In parallel, new logistic, and policy research will provide a change in our ability to intervene in outbreaks. The center is now announcing funding for 3-4 projects that can help achieve the center’s objectives. For more details on this call and application templates please contact MEDforsk@uib.no. The deadline for this call is March 15^th, 2021.

Teaching is one of our core activites and we want to stimulate GOOD teaching at K2!

This year, we focus on raising awareness about the requirement for teaching education, which now applies to all scientific staff both for novel employees and for applications for the renewal of temporary positions (20% positions). The decree demands 200 hours of courses (about 8 study points). We are working on sharing information regarding courses in teaching and learning, and on finding god solutions for how to facilitate the acquisition of the required education for those in need. “Enhet for læring” (the learning center) at the Faculty of Medicine offers a selection of courses that may be recommended.

Our institute wishes to honour a teacher or teaching environment who has demonstrated an extraordinary effort within the field of teaching or development of innovative teaching and learning programs, by forwarding the K2 Teaching Award (NOK 50’000). Think of a nominee an e-mail the name of your candidate and a brief explanation to mette.vesterhus@uib.no by March 15th.

RETHOS is active from 2022. All UGLE must revise descriptions within their fields accordingly, securing that they comply with the requirements in RETHOS as regards form and content. Contact Harald Wiker for help.

The K2 Teaching Award is awarded at the TEACHING DAY May 19^th – save the date!

Christmas and the holiday season at the end of the year are over. It has been a busy time – everything must be fixed and arranged for a few, intense days. However, for most people it has been a precious holiday with time together with the ones we love, as well as an opportunity for contemplation and reflection. It provides motivation and strength to embark on a new year with new opportunities.

We entered the new year with dramatic events. The landslide accident in Gjerdrum was a terrible event, and our thoughts go to relatives, friends and acquaintances of those who lost their lives or were affected in some other way. There are probably many of us who could not believe what we saw on TV on Wednesday where the riots in Washington DC were a failed attempt at a coup in a country that has been a guardian of democracy and a champion of individual freedom. And unfortunately, the coronavirus infection rates have increased significantly, which has necessitated more and stricter restrictions.

There is still reason to look at the new year with optimism! We have learned a lot of new things in the past year in terms of infection prevention and alternative forms of learning, so we are well on our way. A lot of activity will therefore be able to continue as it did in the autumn of 2020 when it comes to research and teaching.

Vaccination is now underway and hopefully the infection situation will be under control sometime this year. We have therefore decided that K2 Retreat, which we had planned for the spring of 2021, will be moved to the autumn while the teaching day (together with K1) will be in the spring, even though it may be digital.

We received good results on applications last year (EU, Helse Vest, Hjertefondet, Kreftforeningen, NFR, Novo Nordisk Fonden). There are a number of application deadlines already now in January and February, among others Novo Nordisk Fonden and NFR so it’s just a matter of getting around. Contact Amra for help and advice. There is the possibility of financial support for applications, especially for those who want to try their hand at ERC. The latter should be considered by more people, the one who dares nothing, nothing wins!

All the best for the new year!

“Just another year”? Because of Covid-19, 2020 will be a year for the history books. The pandemic has turned research and teaching upside down for most of us. Hygienic measures such as social distancing, face masks and antimicrobial sanitizing, as well as the reorganization of communication and teaching to digital media, have required a lot from the individual and the organizations, including K2. But it has been great for me as a leader to see how well you have coped with this upheaval with acceptance, constructive action and even enthusiasm. Thank you very, very much!

We have learned a lot in many areas. Within a few weeks, UiB became digitalized, including eg. The K2 Day! New forms of communication make distances trivial and new international contacts and networks have become possible. I think we will emerge stronger from the pandemic, although there are some things that have been delayed or made more difficult.

K2 has undergone a number of changes in 2020 in that the research groups have been partially reorganized and teaching groups have been established with teaching group leaders (UGLEs). I think this will improve the academic environment for research and teaching. Thanks for constructive processes and involvement.

Despite Covid-19, 2020 has been a good year for K2. Employees have published in the best journals and been awarded prizes. Professor Nina Langeland will lead a National Program Against Antibiotic Resistance, Professor Eva Gerdts a Center for Heart Disease in Women, and Professor Einar Klæboe Kristoffersen a Center for Regenerative Medicine. Congratulations to these environments!

We have so far not fully achieved our goal of external research funding for 2020, but we hope this year’s allocations in the Research Council of Norway, which will be announced next week, will rectify this. K2 coordinates two COE applications, is shared leader of two more and partner on another five. It is to hope that at least one of these will make it! Thanks to Silke and Emmet for being temporarily willing to move up!

Autumn is often perceived as hectic due to application deadlines, meetings, and new student courses. And the semester is relatively short compared to the spring semester. Hence, as the year is nearing its end, it is good to be able to look forward to a holiday with the opportunity for peace and reflection.

For many, Christmas and the holiday season is the highlight of the year where family and friends gather for a holiday full of traditions and a sense of belonging, followed by Christmas in space, which can provide opportunities for other activities at home in Bergen, trips to the mountains or elsewhere. Covid-19 unfortunately places restrictions on this this year, but then we get the opportunity to form even closer ties within our own family.

What most of us take for granted is not necessarily the case for everyone. Some have lost someone they loved or have no close friends or family gathered this year. Can we think extra about these and maybe include them in our own Christmas celebration?

With wishes for a peaceful Christmas and all the best for 2021.

As an employee at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital for almost 25 years, I have been able to participate in and witness a fantastic research and competence building in our institutions. The many colleagues who are employed in so-called dual positions (both UiB and HUH) are in many ways the hubs of this collaboration and those who drive clinical research forward. Although the cooperation is good, there is also “debris in the machinery”.

Different salary models in recruitment positions between those who are employed at UiB and the health trust are a source of a potential conflicts as people who have the same type of job and function can end up with very different salaries. The previously sought-after part-time positions at UiB are no longer so attractive. Colleagues experience that they get a lot more work and stress without the department facilitating research and teaching. If a part-time UiB-position lead to reduced workplan at the hospital, the recent salary increase to these postion is being “eaten up”. There are many who now ask themselves the question – do I want this?

I call for a better climate of cooperation. We should not be competitors – our opponents are the research and teaching environments in Oslo, Trondheim and Tromsø. We in Western Norway need to cooperate more and become more competitive on the national and international arena. Perhaps a working group can take a closer look at how cooperation can be improved in concrete terms.

Eystein

Vice head of K2

Now that Pål and Eystein are back as head and deputy head of K2, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the trust and support I have received during my time as acting head of department. Being the leader of so many enthusiastic and amazing employees has been an exciting experience for me!

You actually have the opportunity to see each other next week on Institute Day (Tuesday 1.12. 8:30 -10:30). Remember to sign up! (https://k2info.w.uib.no/2020/11/05/pamelding-til-instituttets-dag/)

On the program is amongst others

1. Research on Covid-19: Rebecca Cox
2. Celebration of pensionists and jubilees
3. Presentation of the research group leaders and the UGLE (teaching group leaders)

As Mette wrote in the previous leader, we have had a meeting with all UGLEs at K2. All scientific employees shall belong to at least one UGLE, and we have sent out questionnaires which not everyone has answered yet (https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=9325840). Please answer that, so that the OWLS can get an overview of who they have in their group.

Wishing everyone a really good weekend!

Rain, storm and weather warnings have characterized Western Norway over the last couple of days. Perhaps this is how everyday work life has felt sometimes for those of us who take care of teaching, exams and administration of this, in a semester characterized by digital conversion and adaption to variable rules for physical gathering or distancing. Luckily, it is in fact true that every cloud has a silver lining. Is it possible that we may have gained something on our way through the storm, like new ways of teaching?

It is time to share our experiences regarding this as well as regarding the implementation of the K2 teaching groups when the teaching group leaders (UGLE) meet virtually on Tuesday November 24^th at 12-13. Link will be provided in a separate invitation to the UGLEs.

I would like to remind you of the short questionnaire that Julie sent to get an overview over the UNDERVISNINGSGRUPPENE. We would like to get the responses as soon as possible, in preparation for the UGLE meeting. It is swiftly done – please respond by Monday if you haven’t already done so! You will find the form here: https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=9325840

Wishing you a lovely wintery weekend.

It is Friday 13th and unfortunately, we are back in the Home Office after it almost felt like we were back to normal operation. The leadership team will thus also have limited presence, but one of us will be available every day. Fortunately, we were given an exemption from the mandatory home office for people who depend on being in the lab this time. It is the research group leaders who will keep track of the activities.

With increased digitalization and fewer meeting places, it is even more important than before to have good websites! We will be working on K2’s pages in the weeks ahead and I ask EVERYONE to update his or her person page (https://manual.uib.no/webmanual/personside/) and upload a photo. Besides, I ask all the research group leaders to take the initiative to improve their web pages, do not wait until the next K2 retreat (which hopefully comes!)

In addition, we are working to map the teaching groups. All scientific employees have received an email from Julie with a link to registration, and it is also included in this edition of K2nytt. All scientific employees shall belong to at least one teaching group!

Take care of each other and have a nice weekend!

Silke

I am fully aware that new systems are the very last thing on your mind now that Erna and the City Council in Bergen are coming up with new restrictions, and we are facing a period of home office and digital teaching yet again. I therefore promise to keep it short and sweet.

The universities of Bergen, Oslo, Tromsø and Trondheim (BOTT) collaborate on joint procurement of new systems for finance, including orders and invoices, and HR / payroll. The systems that have been chosen for all 4 universities are called Unit4 (Unit 4 Business World) and SAP, for financial system and salary, respectively. UiB will have the pleasure of being the first university to try out the systems, and we will start using these new systems on 1st January 2021.

What does all this mean for you? Well, our economists are getting new systems to work in, and have already done an impressive clean-up job to close old projects in our existing systems. Unit4 will also be the new system for ordering and invoicing, which means that more of our technical employees and other people who place orders will receive training in and get acquainted with new ordering systems. For all of us who register holidays, working hours, disbursement reimbursements and more, everything that has previously gone through Pagaweb, we will now use SAP for. Separate websites have been set up at MED and here you will find more information about receiving the new systems: https://www.uib.no/med/137379/bott-%C3%B8konomi-ved-det-medisinske-fakultet

I have to be completely honest with you: I cannot rule out any childhood diseases in the new systems. Therefore, I would encourage you to order some extra consumables before Christmas, in case there should be a squeaks in January. As soon as there is more information about training, I will share it with you.

I reckon we will not see each other that much in the coming weeks, when home office again becomes the new norm. Digital meetings are becoming all the more important, and I hope many take the time to be “seen” on the Department’s day on Tuesday 1 December. Remember also the aids we have available at K2: Mouthpieces for use in public transport for those who can not work from home, and portable UIB-PCs for lending to (mainly) digital teaching for those who do not have a UIB-PC. And not least: Take very good care of yourself and stay safe and healthy. I don’t want any of you to fall ill.

All the best from Julie

With increased Covid-19 infection, we are back to recommending home office for those who may have it. Everyone else should talk to their leader about flexible working hours to avoid too many at the same time in rush hour traffic. All teaching that requires physical presence is carried out as usual, but I recommend that we switch to digital teaching wherever possible.

That brings me to side line jobs, and our duty to update them twice a year.

By side line jobs is meant job placement, job acquisition, assignments and assignments that an employee at UiB has outside his / her position at UiB, regardless of whether the work or job is paid or not. Work carried out for an enterprise or company wholly or partly owned by the employee is also regarded as a side line job.

The principles for side line jobs can be found in UiB’s Regelsamling (Norwegian only) and apply to all UiB employees, irrespective of the category of job and the number of positions. They must protect our reputation and the trust and integrity of the employees. There should be openness about side line jobs that may have an impact on the work of the university. Everyone must report on their own side assignment on their own initiative.

The following need not be registered: Membership in external review committees, referee for professional journals, assignments as external examiner, professional assignments that accompany main position or individual minor assignments in teaching or dissemination at other institutions, or unpaid appointments of limited scope for non-profit institutions.

The following must be reported: Side line jobs that may be in competition with the University’s activities, are of a long or extensive nature, and may cast doubt on the employee’s loyalty, willingness or ability to carry out his work at the University in the manner indicated by the position and the University’s purpose, and persistently use of the university’s resources and infrastructure.

Applications for side line jobs are evaluated according to the University’s principles for side line jobs, see above. Both registration of page tasks that require approval, and those that are only to be registered, are done in Pagaweb. Information about the side line jobs is stored there and will be made publicly available.

The Department Head approves or rejects applications. Rejection of an application can be appealed to the Faculty Board or the University Director. Violation of the principles of side-tasks can lead to personnel consequences under the Civil Service Act and other reactions under the rules of default in the civil service.

As Pål wrote last year, this may seem negative but side assignments are actual positive as long as it does not hamper or slow down our regular work, can damage the university’s reputation, or mix its own and the university’s resources.

Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!