Week 2
Already in the second week of January, we have the pilot career week for all early career researchers at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MN), Natural History Museum (NHM), and Faculty of Dentistry. Week 2 offers a wide range of courses to provide participants with career-enhancing tools, techniques, and resources to develop skills and explore new career opportunities. Participants will also have the chance to meet with Norwegian industry. The Science Library is a co-organizer along with the faculties and NHM. We hope many of our PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff will participate.
Research Evaluation
The results of the Research Council's evaluation of Norwegian research in the life sciences and natural sciences will be presented in the spring of 2024. This includes physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and geosciences at the faculty. We look forward to the presentation of the work and will use the results as a basis for the development of the different fields and the faculty's research as a whole. The evaluation of mathematics, ICT, technology, medicine, and health sciences, including pharmacy, will be conducted this year and presented next year. Good luck with this work!
Application Processes
We are already in the process of SFI, where 14 outlines were submitted to the faculty before Christmas. It will be interesting to follow the development of the final applications, where the faculty will set up a process to support the applicants. Then, we eagerly await the allocations in the INFRASTRUCTURE program, the faculty has applications as coordinators (7) or partners (21) in life sciences, MNT disciplines, and e-infrastructure - in addition to participating in applications from other faculties. FME - Research Centres for Environmentally Friendly Energy will also be allocated this spring, with our researchers participating in several projects. Good luck to everyone who has contributed, you are doing an important job with application writing that we depend on for the success of our research!
Life Sciences Building
The move to the Life Sciences Building is getting closer and closer. Shortly, our rectorate will make a concrete decision on which research environments can move into the building. Department of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry were allocated space a long time ago. In 2023 it was decided that Department of Biosciences could also be included. Thanks to Department of Biosciences for doing a fantastic job in identifying opportunities and demonstrating the value of moving into the building! The faculty leadership is closely following this process. In addition, we are now setting up a project organization to explicitly address upcoming tasks and challenges related to the Life Sciences Building:
- Academic development and user equipment, led by the Dean of Research
- Education, led by the Dean of Studies
- Moving and disposal, HSE and lab operations, led by the HSE-coordinator
- Finance and organizational development, led by the Dean
A management group will be established with the affected institute directors and deans, under the leadership of the Dean. The Life Sciences Building is UiO's largest project, which will affect all employees beyond academic, departmental, and faculty boundaries. We will keep you updated on the work ahead.
Work Environment Survey
We are committed to creating a good study and work environment for everyone at MN! At the faculty, we have been working systematically and long-term on this, including through our learning environment initiative since 2014, as part of the InterAct process, and the gender equality project FRONT since 2015. It is gratifying that UiO will conduct the work environment survey ARK for all employees this spring. We have prepared well for this work together with the institute leadership - now it is important that you as an employee participate and respond to the survey! We will actively use the results from ARK in the future as a basis for further developing our work environment.
Leadership Development
The faculty leadership has a goal of regularly offering leadership development to our leaders. We have recently completed the Research Council-funded BALANSE project FRONT2, with leadership development being a major and important part. The leadership groups at all nine of our institutes, as well as the Norwegian Centre for Science Education, have participated in two to four modules, which have covered:
- Change processes in academia, including work environment, organizational change, and resistance
- The hiring processes
- Operational day-to-day leadership, including one-to-one work dialogue and career guidance
- Masculine identity and culture
Thank you to the FRONT team for their great effort!
We are expanding our perspective to diversity leadership and our employees in research positions, with a new application for BALANSE funding. The entire faculty leadership team of 100 people will attend a shared seminar on diversity leadership in the autumn. But before that, we are planning our annual gathering for all MN leaders in the spring, with academic freedom, freedom of speech, communication, and change management on the agenda. I am looking forward to it!
To equip ourselves for the future, institute directors and the dean's office will attend a leadership seminar in Copenhagen. There, we will meet colleagues from the University of Copenhagen to learn how they have responded to the political reforms that have rolled over the Danish university sector. The Danes are a few years ahead of Norway in terms of massive political control of the sector. There is every reason to believe that we are seeing the beginning of something similar in Norway, and as academic leaders, we must face this together.
Hiring and Election of Leaders
2024 will be the year we elect and hire leaders for the faculty. Our largest and smallest institutes, Department of Informatics and Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, will elect Head of Department. At Department of Geosciences, Department of Mathematics, Department of Technology Systems, and Department of Pharmacy, a new Head of Department will be hired. These processes will start in 2025. Department of Biosciences and Department of Chemistry have already hired their new Heads of Department, and the process is underway at Department of Physics. At the faculty leadership, our faculty director will retire during the year, and we are in the process of hiring his successor. There will also be a dean election before the summer. The process is underway, and a schedule is being developed. Information about the dean election will be provided throughout the semester.
On behalf of my colleagues in the faculty leadership, I wish you all a Happy New Year and welcome back to the work year 2024!
Best regards,
Solveig Kristensen, Dean