MED-nytt, no 4 – 2024

Editorial: Interdisiplinary collaboration

Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo talks about the collaboration with NTNU at Campus Innlandet.

Professor Richard Hatchett and Professor Graça Raposo are formally announced as our two new honorary doctors who will be conferred at UiO’s Annual Festivities on 2 September.

Read the full editorial

The management Column

Information meeting for potential MSCA supervisors

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) provides supervisors with the opportunity to bring young, international researchers to UiO for up to two years, and to build strategic, international networks. UiO invites potential supervisors for MSCA postdoctoral fellows to an information meeting on 8 March between 09.30-12.00. The meeting will take place via Zoom. Register now!

News from MED

Major brain research initiative at UiO

Our new K.G. Jebsen Centre for Brain Fluid Research will develop new tools to diagnose and treat brain diseases such as dementia and brain cancer. The new centre is led by Professor Per Kristian Eide. Read the full story on the department website in Norwegian.

Study to test novel strategy for untreatable hypertension

Lise Moltzau and colleagues have previously identified substances that can have a positive effect on blood pressure. They have now received research funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to test the effect of one of the substances in a new study. Read more on the department website.

Studies

Student Survey 2024 - a success

Good planning and targeted efforts from the education services at the faculty and the institutes/departments had a positive effect: We received many more responses to the Student Survey in 2024 than in 2023. Something new this year was the question of AI.
Read the full story in Norwegian on the employee pages.

The Student Survey shows increased motivation

The results from the Student Survey show that the motivation to study is now back at the same level as before the pandemic for students studying health sciences and medicine. Read the full article in Norwegian on the Studies website.

Health science analysts 

Epidemiology is important for facilitating public health and planning health services for the population. The specialisation can be taken as a master’s programme in Public Health Sciences and Epidemiology at UiO.
Read the full article in Norwegian on the Studies website.

Briefings

• UiO: Have you noticed that it is no longer possible to get a tax deduction for public defence dinners? Read more about doctoral dinners and conferral of PhD degrees.

• IMB: The tram stop outside Domus Medica and Oslo University Hospital will be closed from October. For a period of time, buses will replace trams until the trams return in relation to Ring 3. From February, there will be noise and vibrations in Domus Medica. Keep updated and read more about both of these items and have a look at phase plans for the construction project on IMB's website for information from the Norwegian Hospital Construction Agency.

• UiO: 1 March is the application deadline for admission to the University of Oslo’s daycare facilities for the 2024/2025 academic year, starting in August. If you meet the application criteria, please submit your application using the online form. Read more and apply here.

• UiO is now beginning the process of using the email solution found in MS365. All students and employees therefore get a more holistic way of working, where the email and calendar work seamlessly with the other MS365 tools, and all email is protected with two-factor authentication (secure login).

• UiO: In February, UiO will complete the higher education sector’s working environment and working climate survey (ARK). The survey will be sent out to everyone on Monday 12 February. Read more about the working environment survey ARK.

• Circle U: Summer schools in Berlin, Louvain and Oslo for PhD candidates. Through the Circle U university alliance, we offer free summer schools in Berlin, Louvain and Oslo within the fields of climate, global health and democracy. Professor Christoph Gradmann is one of the contributors to the summer school in Paris. The application deadline is 29 February for all the summer schools.

• Klinmed: The 11 new portfolio boards at the Research Council of Norway started on 1 January. Professor Ole A. Andreassen chairs the new portfolio board for health. Read more in Norwegian on the institute website.

• Khrono: Debate. Hanne Flinstad Harbo, Siri Forsmo and Alice Beathe Andersgaard: Collaboration between hospital and university will give Innlandet a boost. UiO, NTNU and Innlandet Hospital Trust are working together to develop medical education.

• UiO: External cultural activities for employees: Discounts on theatre performances and concerts are available to UiO employees. There are currently three performances available at particularly good prices: Bring your children along to see HC Andersen’s The Nightingale. See Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ in Kanonhallen at Løren and the performance ‘The Old Lady Comes to Call’ staged by Sigrid Strøm Reibo at Hovedscenen.

• UiO: Keep yourself updated about the study into the possibility of a merger regarding the Faculty of Dentistry and Faculty of Medicine (link in Norwegian). Please contact the work group if you have any input.

Management meetings

Lederforum: Overview of meeting dates (in Norwegian). The next meeting is on Tuesday 19 March. Agenda items and documents may be submitted until 12:00 on the last Thursday before the meeting. Here are the minutes from the previous meeting..

Overview in Norwegian of faculty board meetings and IDF meetings in 2024 (PDF) with deadlines for submitting cases. The next faculty board meeting is on 12 March.Agendas and protocols are updated here in Norwegian.

University Board meetings in 2024. The meetings are live streamed and open to anyone who would like to attend. The next meeting will take place on 12 March. See also agendas and minutes from the first meeting of the year on 6 February.

Opportunities and deadlines

• See all important deadlines regarding applications for research funding in Funding opportunities

• Keep track of the annual cycle for award announcements. Several announcements have been published.

• Innovation. Announcement of funding: Do you have an innovative idea for a new product or service based on your own research, but need funding to further develop the idea? Apply for seed funding from UiO Growth House. Application deadline 4 April.

Courses and events

See the University of Oslo’s course calendar for an overview of all available courses. See also updated overviews of courses from UiO:IT and the Medical and Science Library. 

• Upcoming public defences
• Postdoctoral programme: Are you a researcher in the early phase of your career and would like get better at communicating and writing applications? If so, our course in communication and application writing is something for you. Sign up!.
• 27 February, 18:00 - 19:30 Hjernen og kjønn (Brain and Gender) at Domus Bibliotheca in Norwegian. Our brains may be similar, but something makes them different. Is it hormones?
• 27. februar: Welcome breakfast for new international researchers. The University of Oslo takes pleasure in inviting all international employees, researchers and Ph.D. candidates who have joined our institution recently to an orientation meeting and common breakfast. Read more and register here.
• 8 March, 09:30–12:00: The UiO invites potential supervisors for MSCA postdoctoral fellows to an information meeting. The meeting will be held in English: 2024 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - information for supervisors. 
• In connection with Women’s Day on 8 March, the Gender Equality and Diversity Project FRONT welcomes you to an event on artificial intelligence from a gender perspective: The Library of Science, 12:30–14:30: Artificial intelligence - who sets the premises?
• 8 March at Domus Bibliotheca,14:30 - 17: Female leaders in the field of global health.
• 20 March at Domus Bibliotheca: Innspillsmøte på norsk: Ny språkpolitikk på UiO. Join us and contribute to UiO's new language policy! At this first of two breakfast meetings – one in Norwegian, one in English – we will share experiences and gather input on language use and language policy at UiO.
• 21 March. The Brain in the Centre: On a high. Love, alcohol and drugs.They give us all a high. What happens in our brain? Register or watch a stream of the event. Domus Bibliotheca 18:00 - 19:30.

About Resarch

You can also follow what is happening at the Faculty of Medicine via facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Medisinbloggen: : How do doctors meet the existential worries of seriously ill cancer patients? in Norwegian by Berit Hofset Larsen. How do doctors meet the existential worries of seriously ill cancer patients? by Berit Hofset Larsen

Klinmed: We can soon get a universal flu vaccine (in Norwegian). Are you tired of taking the flu vaccine every year? Ranveig Braathen and colleagues have developed a new DNA vaccine that can provide protection against many varieties of the influenza virus, including variants not included in the vaccine.

Medisinbloggen: Early introduction of food prevents food allergies in Norwegian by Karin Cecilie Lødrup Carlsen and Håvard Ove Skjerven. If you allow young babies to taste different types of food, they are less likely to develop food allergies. This is very good news! 

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