Hi! 2017 is soon history. Christmas is approaching – a holiday that for many is the highlight of the year – followed by some peaceful days, then New Year’s Eve, the New Year’s Concert and the traditional German-Austrian Ski Jumping Week before a new year is embarking.

As most people probably know, I am the new Head of Department of Clinical Science (K2) after Per Bakke. Since not everybody knows me: I was educated MD 1986 and PhD 1989 at UiB, is consultant physician in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the Department of Pediatics and Adoolescents, and has been Professor of Pediatrics from 2000. I have international experience from three research years at the University of Chicago, Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. I have built up the research group in diabetes genetics and lead the KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research.

Why K2? Yes, that is a big jump. The motivation for applying for the job as Head of Department was a wish for new challenges at a great institute with a lot of positive energy. Here are top research groups, EU projects, Jebsen Centers, a new study plan in medicine under implementation, and a budget in balance. What scares me is that it is indeed jumping after Wirkola (Norwegian ski jumper legend). Per Bakke and the team around him have really done a great job at K2. Then it is an extra motivation to see if it is possible to bring K2 even further in the field of research and teaching. The Swede ski jumper Boklöv challenged the jump sport with a new way to jump; it is always possible to do something good even better. I believe in inspiration, involvement, internationalization, and innovation. My mother usually says “cleaver people are needed everywhere” – everyone can do an important job for K2 even though the roles are different. One challenge is therefore to work together to make each other even better. Let 1 + 1 be 3 and not 2. But we should also applaud for those that jump the longest and most stylish. We need role models, we need top research, we need top educators, and we always need new ideas.

Finally, I would like to thank you for your warm welcome at the Institute’s day. I would also like to thank the administration for extra efforts during the time that has been, as well as Eystein Husebye, Jone Trovik and Roland Jonsson who have been willing to be instituted department leaders. I wish to thank each of you for working hard for K2 during 2017.

I am looking forward to getting to know K2 better and taking on this exciting task. Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and everything good for 2018.

Pål

How is the situation regarding sexual harassment at our department?

Our very own university rector was very bold stating to the press “no he did not know any such incidents”, but soon had to correct and confirm that this issue had led to the termination of a UiB professorship, and that ten other cases were registered.

Not surprising. What characterizes an environment with increased risk of sexual harassment: gender inequality and power imbalance, as well as temporary working conditions. Anyone who recognizes this? Male Professors / Leaders / Teachers and Female Fellows / Subordinates / Students, adding a significant age difference between groups; this is us!

Sadly, we are in “good” company: search for university and sexual harassment, and there are several reports from universities in both Europe and the United States. The Guardian characterized this as “at epidemic levels” in March 2017.

What is considered sexual harassment? In general, harassment is defined as repeated unwanted actions over time, or a single serious act. Sexual harassment can range from sexual commentaries / whistling or “pawing” to sexual advances / suggestions to psychologic / physical pressure to achieve sexual “favors”. In an asymmetric working relationship, where a subordinate is dependent specifically on the superior (such as a mentor), she is vulnerable. As a general, a superior has a special responsibility to “keep his path clean”, but as colleagues, we also have a responsibility to speak out if witnessing unwanted behavior! Every one of us should contribute to a culture where harassing comments / actions are not accepted.

What to do if unwanted situations occur? Report! – primarily to your nearest leader, but if this is difficult, please contact a different superior or the formal human safety representative (“verneombud”) for formal inquiries, alternatively the union representative or the corporate health service for more informal advice / assistance. The University’s staff manual provides the following advice in case of harassment: make your own notes of what happened, time and place, and how you reacted. From 1.1.2018, students will have a specific report service at UiB: “Sifra”.

Even though we tend to find the difficulties and possible negative aspects of the now implemented regulations limiting temporary employments, such job protection will help shift the asymmetry / power imbalance in working conditions in the right direction. If this reduces the risk of sexual harassment, it must be regarded as an added benefit.

Jone

Committees from various funding sources (Research Council of Norway, Norwegian Cancer Society, etc.) have spent the autumn analyzing applications and CVs to seal out the around ten percent they think should be funded. The results from the Research Council of Norway’s program FRIMEDBIO show that the new committee established during summer 2017 has not found research at K2 worthy of being funded. In reality, success rates were poor from the Research Council of Norway this year.

So, what about getting on the other side of the fence? For the Research Council of Norway, you need to be invited to sit in the committee, but EU’s Horizon2020 program encourages researchers to register in the expert database. They are looking for two things: high expertise in relevant research field, and that you are available for random short-term assignments. The European Commission considers several factors when choosing evaluators for a call. In addition to scientific qualifications, gender and geographical spread are important factors.

There are many advantages of being an evaluator. You will get direct insight into the process and gain experience with the evaluation process. You will get the opportunity to read several proposals, both good and bad, and will learn which level is expected and what to avoid. This experience is useful when writing proposals for national announcements, which, to an ever-increasing degree, copy EU announcements.

Instead of providing you with a detailed description of the registration process, I have reserved 19 December and 10 January to assist you. You are welcome to come by my office, or invite me over.

Amra

The Norwegian Research Council, along with the EU commission, have been strong advocates for open access to published research, open sharing of research data, and for expansion of the current infrastructure for research and data sharing, known as “Open Science”.

Open Science represents an approach to research that is collaborative, transparent, and accessible, and comes with a range of criteria: Scientists are encouraged and expected to publish in open access journals or science archives, to engage in public debates on research matters, to be involved in larger research collaborations, and to help establish open research practices.

The framework around these criteria can be utilized in various performance evaluation systems, both on an individual and an institutional level. They are meant to be adapted to different career levels. Entry-level scientists can be rewarded for learning about Open Science activities, whereas senior scientists can be rewarded for initiating and participating in such activities, for support or mentoring activities, or for contributing to the development of institutional practices.

To aid the implementation of Open Science, the EU commission has launched the Open Science Monitor, providing a way to assess developments and trends in open science activities. The initiative monitors several indicators to assess open access to publications, data sharing and academic communication. As the Norwegian government has decided that all publications receiving public grants shall be open to everyone by 2024, I strongly advise everyone to use this resource to keep an eye on what’s happening in Open Science.

Roland Jonsson
Acting Head

If you have concerns you should definitely familiarize yourself with the Health Research Act (Act on medical and health research). This act was approved in 2008 (1 July 2009), and was more recently updated in 2017. Below you will find a short introduction to the act.

§2 defines the aim with medical and health research as research on human beings, human biologic material and health related information. In addition, the act is applicable for pilot studies and exploring treatments. The act also defines the geographical area where research is conducted (in § 3), and relates to Norwegian territory or when research is conducted under the leadership of Norwegian scientists.

§4 involves who is the responsible institution and normally this is the place where the responsible scientist is employed. In addition, we get a definition of the project leader as a person who should have the competence both to topic and science for a responsible performance. The supervisor is normally the project leader and should then have a PhD or corresponding merits.

The project leader has the responsibility for the daily conduct of the project and should oversee: that ethical, health related, scientific and individual concerns are taken; that the institution is informed before the project is started; that applicable ethical approval from REK is at hand; that the project is conducted according to the original plan; as well as appropriate communications to public institutions have been done.

Who must apply at REK? All who conduct research with an aim of novel knowledge about health and disease.

Who does not need to apply? Activities concerned with quality assurance. In addition, there are borderline areas, for example health service research, explorative treatments and methodological developments.

If you have questions/concerns? Use the application template “Remit Assessment”.  By this you will get a quick response from REK.

And please note – you will never obtain ethical approval after a project has been started!

How do I apply? You find the Web portal here.  There is full electronic handling of applications.  The decision is sent to the responsible institution. There are different forms for remit assessment, project application, project amendments, and reports.

If you still have questions and concerns – contact the administration at REK. You find them in the second floor of Armauer Hansen Building.

Roland
Acting Head

This originates from an American film (1985), hosting Madonna in her first major screen role. The title was an announcement in the personal column of a newspaper (pre-internet).

What if you did not know if it was Susan you were seeking? Actually it was Stephanie! The REAL story (2017) takes place in Europe; A Basque neuroscience professor is looking for a collaborator skilled in neuro-genetics, rat models and brain investigations. How to find her? Era-net Neuron has issued a trans-national call, advertising 1 million Euro. Where to seek? On the Internet of course, and the UiB web-pages (which our Vice Dean of Innovation Helge Raeder wisely has nudged all research group leaders to actively update) and there he found her; his very Stephanie (Le Hellar), with a perfect scientific match. And so the grant was awarded them! Congratulations Stephanie! And for the rest of us; go home and update your personal UiB web page. Perhaps the scientist of your dreams is out there, waiting for your specific qualifications?!

And if you are desperately seeking dissemination assistance the brand new UiB « Lab of Learning and Dissemination» has just opened in Media City Bergen. They are eager and ready, with highly skilled personnel combining pedagogy and technology; journalism, photography, graphics, TV-productions, wanting to help just YOU! If you need assistance in producing a video to use while teaching (first priority) or research dissemination, they want to enable you to master this yourself. They have a “first-aid-kit” to lend for free, transforming your own cell phone into a capable recorder, and simple (to use) editing programs for you to transform the “take” into a proper video.

The goal should be that each teacher produces one short clinical video-clip for the students to see (and then practice the skill) because this is the OSCE-exercise she/he will organize for the coming spring OSCE. But sooner; coming Wednesday 8th of November is the autumn OSCE which many of us will contribute to. Good luck to you all; both the OSCE-general Ketil Grong, all his good helpers and all the students being tested.

With the arrival of fall comes our annual meeting point; the department day. This year we have chosen to change the name and some of the content. In addition to being our annual HSE-meeting, we will focus on the department’s internal life, as well as the work processes our former department management started this spring. We have invited the faculty to present a status on the evaluation of the reorganization from 2013, as well as the new law for state employees. And we will, most likely, hear from our new head of department and the new plans and expectations he or she has for us. This year we would very much like to make time for some drinks and a chat in Café Christie. Perhaps this will be your opportunity to have a talk with our new head of department or a colleague you haven’t seen in a while. I hope as many as possible will attend both the gathering and the following mingling. Link to registration form here.

With the fall comes another possibility for communication; the annual employee appraisal talk
*(the abbreviation works so much better in Norwegian). All employees, regardless of duration or percentage of employment, is to be offered appraisal talks from his or her immediate leader. In the following days, I myself will invite the administration for their annuals talks. All group leaders will be sent an overview of the employees in their groups, for whom they are responsible to offer an appraisal talk. In order to avoid nag from me, I suggest you start organizing the remaining talks already now. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any uncertainties or questions.

I look forward to seeing you all in the Aula in November.

All the best, Julie

Somewhat unfamiliar? This novel was released in 1986, with a Norwegian translation in 1987. The author Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel prize of literature for 2017. The plot is set in the author’s country of birth Japan, and this is the connection with this editorial: the University of Bergen’s strategic partnership with Japanese research organizations. Together with NTNU and Innovation Norway, UiB have joined forces to approach potential Japanese collaborators in relation to research and innovation. During spring 2017 former Dean Langeland headed a delegation visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, where themes discussed spanned from stem cell research to geriatric medicine.

Japan is well known for technology (and labor effort). Do you have ideas/thoughts related to your research that may profit by Japanese industrial cooperation? Our Vice Dean of Innovation, Helge Raeder, is eager to convey ideas/contact/collaboration. A new Japanese visit is planned for spring 2018. Perhaps you should be joining?

Speaking of innovation and future research: Horizon 2020 hosts a kick-off seminar the 31st of October. Please sign up! Both the Head of Bergen University as well as “our” Dean Bakke is eager to encourage researchers to apply for international research funds. The institute has research advisors for helping you during such application processes; make use of them!

Another action point from the University leadership is increased digitalization: how may this be used to save resources? Are there tasks in your everyday work life better handled by a computer than by manual labor? I am unsure if the hospital’s speech recognition program is a very good example, but the principle is illustrative: instead of secretaries writing the doctors’ notes, the dictates are transcribed by a computer. And thanks to machine learning (!), the writings turn out as (a little) more understandable for every note I make. But in the beginning, there were a lot of absolutely incomprehensible phrases written in the patient files; almost as if one should be “An artist of the floating world”.

Jone

To follow-up the literary references: the title is from a play by Ludvig Holberg. This was also the title winning the Holberg high-school competition some years ago, a project dealing with fraud.

At the last meeting in the committee of extended research management, research fraud was pointed at as one focus area. We should strive to be attentive to this ethical aspect when planning, conducting and presenting our research.

Forging results we all acknowledge as fraud, but there are several more subtle areas where our ethical consciousness might be stretched to benefit ourselves. What about the tendency of selective citation of references; those supporting our own hypothesis are preferred to those disagreeing. Selective publishing is another; it is somehow more convenient to publish positive (meaning: statistical significant) results than those without differences. And what if the interesting (and significant) results from the former study of the newest promising biomarker could not be validated in the following study? We do however have a moral responsibility to publicly present our conducted research, both for the sake of those providing research funding and participating patients contributing with biologic samples/clinical data, as well as to not introduce new treatment algorithms prematurely. “The Invisible” (meaning unpublished) studies may in effect be one form of fraud.

And do we follow the Vancouver treaty? Holding the title as research group leader or head of clinical department, is that equivalent to actually plan, conduct, analyse and write every paper from the group/department? Or should some of these stated as authors in reality be the Invisible?

I would like to remind you all of the OSCE exam 8th of November; those not already having stated who will contribute: please do so to Ketil Grong (he is in need of more qualified helpers).

The Day of the Institute (K2) will be hosted the 29th of November. We do hope our new Head of Institute will be formally appointed at that time, and will actively contribute by presenting the upcoming visions for our Department of Clinical Science.

Jone

The office situation at K2 is a challenge. A large project activity has contributed to an increased demand for office space and working places for phd-students. The administration needs your help in order to know of changes in demand and supply of working places in K2 areas in the lab building. Please remember that your need for office space is to be reported to Irene: Irene.Hjelmaas@uib.no

In the allocation of seats, we will follow the already decided ranking for allocation of office spaces: Professor, Associate Professor, researcher, postdoc, PhD student, research line student, master students. In addition, we will strive to have people sit near their labs and close to their partners. It is possible that we also need to utilize some lab areas as office spaces.

We have recently been given access to some great, new offices in the fifth floor in BUS. These offices are provided in order to relieve the pressure on office places in the Lab-building for researchers and post-docs. The offices are newly furnished with adjustable desks and room for 2-3 people per office. Anyone interested in the new offices can contact Irene or myself.

Now to something completely different; Horizon2020 is about to embark on the last three years of its’ existence with a bigger budget than ever. On that occasion, the Division of Research Management at UiB and the Research Council of Norway arrange a Kick-off meeting. Please see the separate post further down in this week’s news letter for details.

Best regards,

Julie

In the new curriculum for the medical students at our faculty, Medicine 2015, it has been decided that what is referred to as OSCE examinations (O = objective; S = structured; C = clinical; E = examination) should be introduced and included. One of the main arguments for this is to secure a fairer evaluation and grading compared to the current clinical examinations. There are arguments both pro and con. However, we all must relate to this decision and make sure that these examinations are performed in a proper manner. The first ordinary OSCE examination will be on June 20th, 2018 for 160 medical students. The OSCE exam is a station-based exam (“circle exercise”), and all students are examined at all stations.

As announced since April/May, the fourth and last pilot-OSCE examination will be on Wednesday November 8th (in about one month). The pilot medical students to be examined this time are from Class 14-B. They have been medical students for about 3½ years by now. Altogether, 39 examiners are needed to run three parallel circles with 13 different active stations. Examiners from Departments of Biomedicine, Clinical Medcine, Clinical Science and Global Public Health and Primary Care will be more or less involved as examiners. There will be electronic and online assessment with laptop at each station.

This is an example of the checklist for the examination in one of the stations used in the pilot examination in May this year:

This example is related to the teaching in neurophysiology at the Departments of Biomedicine. The “objectivity” is secured by evaluating all candidates and issuing points on each single question/element in the checklist. A global score (totalvurdering) is the examiner’s overall and general judgement and impression of the candidate’s performance, independent of points actually obtained.

By a Single borderline score regression analysis, the global evaluation (Not passed, Borderline, Sufficient, Good, Excellent) is plotted on the x-axis vs. the points scored for every student (in this example 68) on the y-axis. If a score of > 40% of the points is preset as the limit for passing this station, 6 students have failed. In this example, the regression analysis will adjust the limit to ~ 60%, and 12 students will fail. The borderline regression analysis corrects for an easy station where many students obtain high scores and a more difficult task/station where many students obtain a low score.

This pilot OSCE examination will commence at. 08:00 a.m. on November 8th, and is finished by lunchtime.

Ketil Grong

This summer, at a time where most of us were out of office and enjoying much needed vacation, the new law for state employees was effectuated. The first effect was immediate, and some of you might even have noticed it; internal calls of positions is no longer a possibility. Due to this, some of the positions already called were withdrawn and then called again, but this time publicly. The new law states that the best candidate is to be recruited, not the best internal candidate. Hence, all calls must be public.

The purpose of the new law is, amongst others, to reduce the use of temporary labor, which has been one of the areas the current government has focused on. During the recent years, both the faculty and the university board have had an increased interest in the share of temporary labor within the university. The department has reported on how many of our employees are employed on a temporary basis.

In addition to the new law, the University of Bergen has decided upon even stricter goals in order to reduce the use of temporary labor, ref. University board matter 65/2017. The call of research positions for a duration exceeding 2 years is from now on as a main rule considered called a permanent position. Technical and administrative positions should, as a main rule, not be temporary. Substitute positions are still allowed, but the use of administrative employment without calling the position will be even more restrictive.

Currently, we do not have any well-suited working practices to handle this change, but the faculty is working on it. Even though some positions will be called as permanent instead of temporary, the wage budget distributed to the department will not increase. We therefore need good practices to ensure new positions and areas of work for permanent employees when current projects and tasks are completed. Preferential rights and knowledge must be considered in order to match available resources with project needs. The administration needs sufficient tools to help us organize this. We are all keen on complying with the new requirements from the government and the university board, but we must arrange for a suiting way to organize and follow up.

Best regards,
Julie

In continuation of citations from Brecht, with the following arguments:

– The University Headmaster has invited us all to attend this play.

– The good person: This week two prominent academics and social commentators left us: Per Fugelli and Frank Årebrot. Fugelli has formerly teached at UiB, and I still remember his speech to our freshman medical student group regarding egoism (pay claims) versus societal responsibilities (to promote patients’ and society’s best). Årebrot was an exceptional lecturer who really managed to create enthusiasm and interest for his subjects. They were proper role models! May they rest in peace.

– Szechwan: stated as a city in China. I do not find this on the map, but the region of Sichuan south-west of China, with the province capital Chengdu and it’s approximately 14 million inhabitants, may be the most appropriate analogy. This is really FAR away and definitely different from Norway and Bergen. What is the link to this editorial? INTERNATIONALIZATION. Bullet point number three on the Dean’s list of major commitments for the Medical Faculty.

Promoting cooperation across borders opens a larger potential “stock” of professionals to be attached to our Department. While scanning through the list of PhD students and Postdocs, I see many Asian and other non-Norwegian names. When receiving e-mail responses in English and the fact that we see the need (and value!) of publishing K2-nytt also in English, proves that many international employees are attached to (and hopefully attracted by) our Department. K2 will very much encourage their employees (as well as students) to work and cooperate abroad. I stayed half a year during my postdoc period in Hong Kong, a really exciting experience for the whole family! International schooling worked well, and my husband had a similar academic affiliation. Both educational and research cooperation were initiated and have been continued further on.

Many possibilities for international cooperation do exist; Horizon2020 (the EU research and innovation program) is but one. The University of Bergen hosts a kick-off seminar 31st of October (see separate announcement in this K2-nytt). The upcoming programs/work packages will be presented, including Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing. Do look out for interesting possibilities/subjects for your scientific environment!

Jone

While waiting for the next Head of K2 to be formally appointed (since Per Bakke left us for the position as Dean) I am acting Head and will to the best of my capacity try to take care of these responsibilities. To contact me, I have office telephone ((559)7 4295), cell phone (924 25 171) and e-mail: mailto:jone.trovik@med.uib.no or mailto:jone.trovik@med.uib.no Those of you in need of a personal encounter, are welcome to my office located at 4^th floor (Norwegian counting) in the Women’s Clinic (Department building for Obstetrics and Gynecology) in the corridor facing Ulriken. This takes a brisk walk from the BBB / laboratory building or the main hospital building (Sentralblokken), hopefully contributing to the recommended 10,000 daily steps to maintain good health!

In our Dean’s inaugural speech, he pointed out three main commitments areas for the Faculty to attend. For our institute to follow these (in his ranked order!), the following may be pinpointed:

1. Students in focus

As K2’s Head of Education (Yes, I do hold several roles at present ….) I am very pleased that this aspect is on top of his list! This main University activity has to be fronted EACH day. When positions are advertised/appointed we have to take educational qualifications seriously. Do consider what each post/person may contribute in relation to educational activities. And a reminder from the administrative educational section: all teachers, please remember to use Mitt UiB/Canvas to actively check your teaching schedule and distribute educational material electronically. No one else will take care of this on behalf of you. A special pedagogy course is to be held for PhD students / postdoctoral fellows / those in academic minor positions. We are looking forward to this.

2. Interactions with other Institutes and Faculties belonging to the University of Bergen

Cooperation across traditional academic areas will potentially give new ideas and strengthen the academic community. To achieve this, we need areas to actually meet face-to-face, actively communicate and find new partners. The first upcoming possibility is Digital Day for employees (Digital Myldredag) held in Grieghallen 4^th of October. Different ongoing digitalization projects, tools and methods will be on display by more than 20 different UiB groups. What are other groups using? How may this be modified for my setting/needs?  Maybe someone has a very smart solution to something I have been struggling with?

3. Internationalization

This will be commented in a later editorial.

And regarding the title reference to Beckett’s play: I do hope the communication within K2 is not considered as absurd.

Jone

“Peace and see you later” is common to say in Israel where I will spend the next semester as guest professor at The Weizmann Institute of Science. The sabbatical arrangement is a great opportunity to establish new collaborations, build networks and set of time to plan projects and write applications. The network is not only useful for the professor him or herself. It also opens up for exchange of younger researcher in the involved groups. Several of the groups at the institute have used this opportunity in an exemplary way, such as the diabetes and lung research groups.

Staying abroad requires planning not only of the academic project, but also of the practicalities concerning work and studies for any partner, school for children and housing. The faculty provide grants each year, and funds can also be obtained from Helse Vest, the Research Council of Norway, and other funding bodies. Application deadline for research terms is 1 May each year.

It is less common for foreigners to apply for a sabbatical at K2, but our goal should be to attract good researchers from abroad who wish to spend a year with us. Don’t forget this possibility

Finally, I would like to end my term as vice head and short guest appearance as head of department, by saying shalom ve lihitraot. Now, Jone takes over until the new head of the department is ready to start.

Good weekend and good remaining 2017.

Eystein

A researcher at UiB recently published a very interesting scientific work that could potentially pave the way for a new treatment principle to increase muscle strength. In an interview with the newspaper Bergens Tidende, the journalist asked if the discovery could yield income to the researcher or UiB. The researcher shook his head before he replied: I have not thought about it. I am most concerned about helping people. That’s why I’m a researcher. Revenue is less important.

It is understandable that the researcher wishes to have his primary focus on the discovery. But the findings have only a potential utility until someone finds some practical realization of the findings. Potentiality and realization marks the difference between research and innovation. And by practical realization of the findings the researcher, through his or her expertise, can shorten the path to patient care, while at the same time acquiring additional sources of external funding and also creating new jobs.

At the Department of Clinical Science, Audun Nerland has lead a group that has looked at conditions that can improve the innovation ability at the Department. The group points, among other things, to awareness-raising about innovation and commercialization, training in the stages of the innovation process, providing facilities and meeting places, providing information about innovation-oriented research support (e.g., NFR FORNY2020, BIOTEK2021, BIA) and giving merits if you contribute to innovation. Innovation is not only relevant in research, but also in teaching, as illustrated by the project of Professor Jarle Rørvik (K1) Adap (Adaptive Online Learning Environment).

I hope that everyone, besides publications and public dissemination of their research, also considers the potential for innovation. Then, as the newly appointed Vice Dean of Innovation, I will do my best to make the best possible arrangements to make innovation happen. One of my first tasks is to find residents to the new Incubator Building, which is planned on the parking deck behind the Laboratory Building, in such a way that it promotes a culture of innovation.

Helge

Dear all K2s,

Welcome to a new semester as teachers and facilitators / contributors to all the teaching we perform at UoB and K2.

Medicine 2015 (“New Study Plan in Medicine”) is rolled out, and this autumn the old “propedeutics term” is completely reorganized. There has been an increase in research in research / journal writing, and we need urgently more fresh effort to participate. That is why all fellow students have received an email from me to request for contributions to this course now. But we also need contributions from other disciplines, so I have asked for information about each individual’s background. We will probably come back with requests for other teaching later.

Teaching is one of the main areas of responsibility for the university, and all fellows are also supposed to develop teaching skills (dissemination) during their PhD course. We therefore hope that both fellows and supervisors see the importance of contributions into teaching, also for those who have a scholarship outside of UoB.

I have received MANY positive answers. Thank you very much to those of you who show interest in contributing, and to those who have not yet answered, I hope to receive a feedback.

Wish you all a good teaching autumn!

Jone

Many of us witnessed how Karsten Warholm became world champion and won 400 meters hurdle in London on Wednesday. An amazing achievement that shows how a talent can, with systematic work, set the highest goals and reach them

Let this be an inspiration for us at K2. UiB, like Ulsteinvik, is not the metropolis for science and sport, but we can still deliever achievements in the top international level in research, teaching and dissemination. Although Warholm’s success is first and foremost his own profit, it is also the result of good helpers and an organized environment. Therefore, it is important that the university, the faculty and the department all make it possible for talent to develop and showcase. K2 will work for everyone at the department to be among the best in their area, and the new head of department will be central to this work.

When the application deadline for the position as Head of Department expired on August 4th, 4 highly qualified individuals had applied. Now the committee will look forward to finding the best suitable applicant, whom we hope to get to work on September 1st. Until then I will lead the Department.

With the hope of a productive autumn

Eystein

Acting head of department

This is the last K2Nytt editorial before the summer vacation and my last as head of the Department of Clinical Science. I will take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you. More than four years have passed since K2 was established, and a lot has happened these years. It has been ups and downs, but I have always felt a very strong support and kindness from every corner of K2.

With 320 employees coming from four different departments, it has for sure been conflicts of interests and different opinions of how to cope with various challenges. However, I have always felt that people have taken a strong interest in where to go, and have sincerely wanted a good solution. The occasions when some did not have it their way, the final solution has always been accepted.

There will soon be a call for the position as new head of K2. I hope that many will consider applying. It is a very rewarding job. It is a fantastic bunch of people at K2, be it the administrative, technical or scientific staff. I want the next head of K2 to be met with the same kindness as has been offered me. There are still many tasks to take on at K2.

Thanks a lot, all of you!

Per

Bob Dylan sings that it’s time to wake up for the times have changed; also for UiB and K2. The UiB Board made two decisions on June 1st that will affect us. One seems unimaginable; We are now going to be called “The Faculty of Medicine” – simple and straightforward, but at the same time clear and powerful. The second decision that Per Bakke is offered the position as Dean touches us more. I received the news with mixed feelings. I was very happy on Pers and my own behalf; The Faculty of Medicine receives a new and visionary leader. The backside, however, is that K2 will soon be without a leader.

Per has led the department through a major and extensive reorganization and has managed to get groups from different institutes to work well together with a low conflict level. Under Press Management, the business has had impressive growth. K2 researchers regularly publish in “top tier” journals, receive grants from national (K.G.-Jebsen, NFR, Cancer Society) and international funds and organizations (EU, Novo Nordisk). We have managed to pay off debt and have provided us with an action room that enables strategic measures to further improve the quality of research, teaching and dissemination.

Per, in other words, leaves an institute with good vitality and little obstructivity. When he on July 31st, extends his right arm with the baton, who is ready to grab it and the challenge of leading K2 futher?

The Department Management thinks that it will be possible to conduct own research while leading K2, as Per has shown possible with about 130 articles published since 2010. The new department head gets its own post-doc position, a reliable management and the ability to build up a senior management team – all to facilitate high academic activity.

We hope that «The Times They are a-changin» in a positive way and that many, both internal and external, see the opportunities that lie in the position of head of department and apply.

Eystein

The government has made it clear that the universities are to promote digitalization within all fields. Traditionally we have considered digitalization primarily as a tool to optimize administrative services. In recent years digitalization within teaching and at examinations have become more common. A good example is the efforts done by Martin Biermann of which he received the Faculty Dissemination Prize 2017.

Also, research may benefit from digitalization. As part of the efforts to respond to the requests from the government, the university has made a strategy for digitalization.  UoB will establish working groups for how to promote digitalization within teaching and research, and within the administrative services. I have heard some state that digitalization is just a way to make the scientists do secretary work. This assessment is too simple.

The university will organize a “Come together day” on digitalization 4 October 2017 in Grieghallen. The aim is to present various ways of digitalization to promote teaching and research, as well as administrative services. Those who might have projects that could be presented in Grieghallen, please notify this by sending an e-mail to org2022@uib.no within Monday 12 June.^.

The event in Grieghallen will be open to everybody at the university. Note the date! Digitalization is here to come, we should join it. By visiting Grieghallen 4 October, we might get some good ideas to use in our own research, teaching or administrative work

Per

Thanks to the OSCE-lad Ketil Grong for steady organization, motivation, arrangement and evaluation. And thanks to those who made assignments and contributed as examinators as well as timer/organizator.

For those who haven’t understood what this is; Objective Structured Clinical Exam, to replace traditonal oral examinations. Stations are made with a task that should be clinically directed, this year they had 14 different tasks that ran parallell in two ”rounds”
So every task duplicated; held in two different rooms with an examinator each. The students were doing 14 different assignments this time; tuning fork test, makroanatomi, identify heart structures, hypertension/ Control blood pressure, heartauscultation, throatpalpation, abdomen and rectal Exploration, joint status survey, Cardiac pulmonary resuscitation, talking and interpreting about normal EKG, case history (communication), microscopy/ evaluation of culturedishes, hip examination and finally geriatri (the latter post I don’t quite know what was about)

The OSCE-lad with a tenical assisstent rigged the day before (at the Medical Skills Center and the course rooms in the BBB building a few examiners stuck their head in. 32 students attended the exam, two ”resting stations” between the 14 active examinatior = 2,5 hours of active examinations, after 4 hours of clean-up.

Conclusion: the students were satisfied. The OSCE general tired (but satisfied?), but needs more PRACTICAL / ADMINISTRATIVE help next time

Challenges: Electronic solution for how to record earnings per station must immediately be procuted. When this is rolled out on a large scale; 160 students each spring 6th semester need more parallel circles and both area and equipment must be dobbled.

Next OSCE autum 2017 is November 8th. That assumes that ALL Groups from K2 with tuition allowance in 1st -6th semester (that means the Three first years of study) MUST prepare at least one station assignment each and have avaliable Three People who can be examinatior per ask one delivers. That means NO ordinary teaching this day. And it is assumed that you have peronnel availability (not a good day to plan/ go to a congress/Meetings)

Spring 2018 we’re have the first OSCE for the Whole class, that means 5 parallel sections. We will need 65 examinators and then it will definitely be FACULTY LOCKDOWN. The date will be announced early in the fall, so that Teachers can be allocated here.

But before that time: Happy Pentecost!

Jone

This week I have attended the annual ATS (American Thoracic Society) conference in Washington. One of the sessions at the conference was about global warming and lung health. The first part of the session was science, the other politics. This editorial will deal with the latter. One of the speakers was Carol Browner, who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy under the Obama administration, and is also a previous head of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). She presented a rather shocking outline of the methods used by the oil, coal and automobile industry to misinform about global warming and health consequences. These methods make those used by the tobacco industry regarding cigarette smoking and health to look like nothing. These industries are now backed by the current head of EPA under the Trump administration, Scott  Pruitt. He has now laid off scientists, closed EPA web pages, and is planning to reduce the agency by about one third.

Does this concern us? Yes, as it does all of us, but also according to the ex-head of EPA, Carol Browner, particularly so as researchers. In this case, it affects particularly scientists into climate and health. The next time it could be other topics.

As researchers, we have traditionally had little interest to communicate our knowledge to the population at large. What is important is the scientific journals. However, times have changed, and so must we. Scientific publications does not exclude dissemination to the public. A good example is the communication about consequences of lack of vaccination that Becky and Kristin from K2 had last year.

Fake news and alternative facts should be opposed. This is a particularly responsibility for university employees!

Per

The ERC was created to address the need to develop long-term funding for researchers to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk/high-gain research where the intention is to establish excellent research environments in Europe. Scientific excellence is therefore the sole evaluation criterion for selecting the principal investigator and the scientific project. The ground-breaking nature and ambition of the project must be balanced by feasibility. In addition, the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the principal investigator are evaluated. Proposals should cross the boundaries between different fields of research and ERC is welcoming pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of Research.

The principal investigator of an ERC Starting Grant shall have been awarded his or her first PhD degree > 2 and < 7 years ago, while this period for the ERC Consolidator Grant is > 7 and < 12 years. Clinical training, long-term illness, maternity- and paternity leaves can be taken into consideration when calculating the effective elapsed time.

The ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants are looking for independent young and mid-career scientists who may become the future top notch researchers and/or leaders in their research field. What could, in your case, be seen as proof of research independence? It is expected that the applicant will have produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor for Starting Grant candidates, and several such publications for Consolidator Grant candidates.

For 2016, the success rate for Life Sciences proposals was 14 % for Starting and Consolidator Grant proposals; success rates which are in line with, or even higher than, similar programs from the Research Council of Norway.

We urge you to contact us if you consider applying for these grants during 2017 or 2018. The call for the Starting Grant will most likely open during summer 2017 and usually has deadline during October, while the Consolidator Grant call is expected to open during fall 2017 with the expected deadline during February 2018. In that respect, we want to make you aware of the ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants Course arranged by the Division of Research Administration at UiB. Representatives from the company Beacon Tech will guide you through the proposal elements and talk about presenting the research idea and yourself. You can book a session with them after lunch to discuss your idea and further questions. The course takes place 14 June at Hotel Ørnen and you can register via this link.

Helge, Eystein, Amra and Itana

We have been reminded that everybody must register and/or update his/her external work information. The University Board has decided that all employees at UoB, regardless of the job category and position fraction, have to register their tasks outside of UoB. The intention is that there shall be full transparency for people both inside and outside UoB about employees’ potential links. The list of external tasks is publicly available.

It is emphasized that it is entirely legitimate and desirable that UoB employees have external tasks. But all external work should be registered. Transparency about this is primarily an advantage for the employee. However, also for K2, as one of the largest institutes at the UoB and as such often reviewed by the university, it is important that we comply to this order.

You do the registration in Paga.

What external work should be registered? Read the manual here, and further about the principles here (links in Norwegian only). It is easy to register and takes most of us less than 15 minutes.

This topic was emphasized last year. For those who do not have any change in external tasks or none at all, no measure is needed.

If you are in doubt about the registration of external work, contact Julie.
(NB: Read the instructions first!)

Per

The KG Jebsen center for diabetes research has moved into new locations within the BUSP building. The event was marked with a symposium last week, and the leader of the Center, Pål Njølstad, should be congratulated. The establishment of the UoB attached KG Jebsen center for diabetic research within the hospital building of BUSP is an example of the good collaboration between the hospital and the university. However, it is also indicative of the strategic skills and entrepreneur ability of Pål.

KG Jebsen center for diabetes research was established based on funding from the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation. Since then Pål and his team have shown an impressive scientific production with papers in journals like Nature Genetics, New England Journal of Medicine and Cell, just to mention some. As important is the fact that the center has been able to recruit stellar researchers like Valeriya Lyssenko and Simona Chera.

A good collaboration between the hospital and the university is a prerequisite and necessity in order for Bergen to compete with the Oslo dominance within medical research. The future success of the center will not only be measured in high-ranking publications, but also in the ability of the center to promote the next generation researchers.

Good luck in the years to come!

Per

I hope everyone has had a well-deserved break – be it in the mountains, at the coast or in the city – and have gathered new power for the spring’s application processes and teaching tasks.

The joint lecturing day will take place next week, more specifically on Thursday 27 April. Here, among other things, we will be introduced to ETP (Excellent Teaching Practitioner). This is a merit scheme for outstanding teaching at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Vise-Dean Harald Walderhaug will explain how this works. Perhaps this is something to strive for?

Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is relevant to many subject areas. Here, Ketil Grong will give us some practical examples, and afterwards we will have the opportunity to collaborate on proposals for assignments for later exams.

Apropos cooperation. The 12th semester of the medical studies is a great opportunity to present subjects across professional boundaries, where one can go deeper into terms than in previous semesters. Karen Budal has sent a call to relevant groups in the academic community and asked for input. Think wide! What other topics are related to your field of work? “Acute abdomen”; surgeon / urologist / gastromedicine / gynecologist. Diagnostics of almost anything; pathologist, microbiologist, radiologist. Treatment: what about comorbidity? Cardiologist / anaesthesiologist / pulmonologist. Multipharma; pharmacologist / geriatrics. Almost everything should be diagnosed primarily by general practitioners. Get them on the team!

Our vigorous professional efforts – be it research or education – is that what’s needed to have a good life? There is of course research that can say something about this: “The Harward Study of adult development” – a 75-year longitudinal and ongoing study! An excellent TED talk by the fourth leader of the study, Robert Waldinger, is recommended!

Jone

First you have to define your specific scientific goals and a reasonable time frame. The goals and time frame are perhaps most clearly formulated for the graduate students: One need to publish at least three papers within one´s field of interest and write a Thesis within the doctoral time frame. It is perhaps less clear what the goals are, if you are postdoctoral fellow or a younger researcher who would like a successful career in science, but a friend in Boston used to say that within the postdoctoral time period one should try to achieve the following three goals: to carry out interesting and publishable experiments, to publish a good paper, and obtain an independent grant. He also believed that these three goals were part of a cycle where they reinforced each other’s chance mutually: You do not get grants without papers, and you do not get papers without experiments and you do are not able to carry out experiments without any form of funding.

Amra Grudic-Feta

Somewhere in the cycle, however, you need to jump in, and here we hope that a new initiative from the Department can come to your assistance: The Department has defined its goals for better research in the Strategy Plan, and in June we will employ a research consultant, Amra Grudic-Feta, who will help us reach several of these goals. In particular, she will contribute towards four of the defined goals:

– in the structured approach for writing grant applications (F2),

– in follow-up of grant calls as well as publication of these in K2News (F2),

– as a resource that can help career counseling and career research education (RIK1), and

– as a contact point (catalyst) who may help scientists navigate to find the desired advanced equipment and expertise within the Department (RIK2).

We wish Amra welcome to the Department and hope she can help you to reach your goals.

Helge