Dear all;
It has been hectic activity in our building the last days, relocating people in the different floors of the department. The administrative staff has moved from 6th floor to 7th floor, while scientific staff has been relocated according to which research unit they are belonging to. The process of moving permanent staff is now finished, while a few of the temporarily employed people (PhDs, post docs, others) still will be relocated. It must be said that the whole process has been as smooth as one can expect, and people have been showing a very positive attitude towards the whole process.
Further, I would like to highlight two ongoing projects in the INTPART programme, funded by NRC and coordinated by Scientific staff at IBM. INTPART was initiated with the aim to enhance collaboration between higher education institutions in Norway and their counterparts abroad, particularly focusing on countries of strategic importance.
The INTPART project «Partnership on Central Nervous System Malignancies» (Rolf Bjerkvig-coordinator) has participants from UiB, Shandong University (Jinan, China), Wuhan National Laboratory (China), and MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX). The overall objective is to develop outstanding research and education in Norway and abroad on malignant brain tumors. We have organized courses in tumor biology and imaging and performed staff and student exchanges between China and Norway. A 3-day final conference has just been arranged at Solstrand Fjordhotell with approximately 40 participants, focusing on courses in neuropathology, drug design, and scientific project achievements. The project finishes end of February 2024.
The INTPART project “VitaCross” (a training platform in systems medicine) has participants from UiB (Mathias Ziegler-coordinator), UiT, the University of South Alabama (Mitchell Cancer Center) and the University of Groningen (Medical Center). VitaCross organizes joint courses in systems biology, medicinal chemistry, cancer biology, computational modeling and other technologies. Two courses take place each year, as well as joint workshops and staff exchanges. Currently, we conduct a 2-week course in Bergen (at Eitri) on metabolic pathway analyses jointly with the Norwegian Research School on Bioinformatics, Biostatistics and Systems Biology (NORBIS). This project ends March 2026.
During the HMS Day at the Medical Faculty on Feb 21th, the “Work Environment Award” (Arbeidsmiljøprisen) for 2023 was awarded to Fellesavdelingen at IBM, for their outstanding efforts during the implementation of the OSKE exam. Congratulations! For more information, see https://www.uib.no/med/168779/teknisk-fellesavdeling-ved-ibm-ble-hedret-med-arbeidsmiljøpris.
Finally, this week is winter holiday, and I hope that all of you will have a nice week, whether you take a few days off, or you will be at work.
Best regards
Frits