Dear colleagues,
January has been a busy month for us in the new Dean’s Office. We have conducted meetings with many groups, the sections in the faculty administration, the departments and other units at the faculty. We have had productive meetings with managers, employees and students, and we have had important exchanges of information and many useful discussions.
In the coming days and weeks, we have planned meetings with several units and with external partners, such as Oslo University Hospital, Akershus University Hospital and OsloMet. We will definitely try to clear space in our calendars if we are invited to certain events. That means you probably won’t find me very often in my Dean’s office at Sogn Arena (pictured) if an appointment hasn’t been made. This is also why it is a good idea to use the digital mailbox of the Dean’s Office if you have any input for us, as I mentioned in the previous Newsletter. Thank you for the input we have already received which we will keep in mind regarding our further work.
It has been wonderful to experience everyone’s great involvement regarding the further development of the faculty. One of the points we are already working on is research training, for which Vice-Dean Grete Dyb now has the overall academic responsibility in the Dean’s Office. She collaborates closely and well with the Section for Research Administration in the faculty administration and our research training leaders at the departments, all of whom do an impressive job. Did you know that we have approximately 1000 doctoral research fellows in our PhD programme at any given time, and that we are the largest in Norway in this context?
In addition to our visits to the units, Pro-Dean of Studies Magnus Løberg and I have visited most medical studies modules and welcomed everyone to the new semester (see picture below). Together with Vice-Dean for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Programmes Eli Feiring, I am looking forward to meeting students in these programmes in the coming weeks.
Pro-Dean for Research and Innovation Jan Bjålie is also well underway with the major and important work that has to be done in this field. It is also very pleasing to see that among the new SPARK teams selected by UiO: LIfe Sciences there are three teams led by our researchers, and we also have representatives in all but one team. Many of our researchers continue to receive impressive research grants, such as Hilde Loge Nilsen and Nicola Pietro Montaldo, who have recently received funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to look at the role of mitochondria in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
It is very nice to see the great involvement in the organisation and the outstanding work being done at our faculty, something which we really do welcome. We are looking forward to the four years ahead, we are ready to go and the journey has only just begun.
Yours sincerely, Hanne
