MED-nytt, no 22 ¨C 2024

Editorial: Happy Advent season!

Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo talks about the final push for the semester and the year in the faculty leadership. The study deans have written an article about our aim to educate an anti-racist generation of doctors. Efforts are being made to balance the faculty¡¯s finances. The dean thanks everyone involved in this effort. The students from Gaza are moving on. See pictures from the public meeting about the rebuilding of Gaza.

She wishes everyone a happy Advent and encourages all who can to attend the Advent concert and Christmas tree lighting at the Universitetsplassen.

Read the full editorial

News about MED

UiO's new joint Department of Comparative Medicine

UiO has merged its units for comparative medicine into a single entity. The Department of comparative medicine at IMB will thus be the only department of its kind at UiO.
Read more on IMB¡¯s website in Norwegian
 

12 million NOK in FRIPRO funds for Alzheimer research

Researcher Shahram Bahrami will investigate the factors that make some people more resistant to dementia than others.

Read more on the Klinmed¡¯s website.

UiO's innovation funds for 2024 

Six projects at MED receive innovation funds from the Rectorate to develop solutions beneficial to society. Arne Klungland, Biswajyoti Sahu, and Hanne Scholz will receive up to 400,000 NOK each for the testing and development phase. Eva Smorodina, Kjetil Retterst?l, and Svend Davanger will receive 50,000 NOK each for the idea and concept phase.

Read more about the allocation on UiO¡¯s website.

 

New representative with deputy to the faculty board

Congratulations to Einar Eftest?l (IMB) on winning the election! He will serve as the new permanent representative for the temporarily employed academic staff, including temporarily employed Professor II. Lene Lunde (Helsam) has been elected as the deputy representative.
Read more about the election on the website.

Briefings

• MED: A reminder that everyone at MED will be moved into a new email system. The start date is now 12th December. Have you completed your preparations? See the updated checklist of what you need to do before the transition.

• IMB: Stay informed about the impact of the Rikshospitalet construction on those of us working and studying at Domus Medica. You can now read about:

  • Extension of the bus for tram service, likely continuing until February.

  • Several periods of noise and demolition at Domus Medica in late 2024 due to Oslo Police¡¯s emergency exercise and the demolition of the hospital hotel.

• UiO: Send Christmas cards from UiO: Keep an eye on the staff pages. The Christmas card will be posted soon. Information will also be updated here.

• UiO: The Life Sciences Building will have its own strategic coordination body (link in Norwegian).

• Uniforum: Health science students are struggling with Norwegian (link in Norwegian). Pro-Dean of Studies, Magnus L?berg believes there is a need to consider specific admission requirements in Norwegian for health education. Both for the studies and subsequent work as healthcare professionals, it is crucial to have solid Norwegian language skills, says Dean Hanne Flinstad Harbo.

• UiO: Update on the salary negotiations  Local wage negotiations for 2024 will soon begin.

• UiO: Offers for UiO Employees. Watch "Dissection of a Snowfall" by Sara Stridsberg at the National Theatre at a reduced price and get discounts on Christmas concerts with the St. Hallvard Boys' Choir. If you wish to receive an email when new offers are posted, you can join the list kultur-tilbud@uio.no here. The offers are for employees, emeriti, and other affiliates of UiO such as visiting researchers, and more.

Management meetings

• "Lederforum" was an advisory body for the Dekan. Matters of importance to the faculty and its subordinate units were discussed or disseminated in this forum. Faculty staff have access to previous summons and minutes. Here you will find minutes from the Lederforum meetings. The Institute Heads' meetings next meeting on 10 December) will take over from the Leadership Forum in addition to the Faculty Director's  section managers' meeting every Thursday at 12 noon.
• Overview of faculty board meetings and IDF meetings in 2024 (PDF) (in Norwegian) with deadlines for submitting cases. The next faculty board meeting will be held on 10. December. Agendas and protocols will be updated here (in Norwegian).
• Meetings of the university board 2024 (in norwegian). The meetings are live streamed and open to anyone who would like to attend. The next meeting will take place on 3 December. See also agendas and minutes from previous meetings.

Opportunities and deadlines

See all deadlines for applications for research funding under Funding opportunities.

• Keep an eye on the annual calendar for award announcements (in norwegian).

• Researchers in life sciences at UiO can apply for incentive funds for FRIPRO applications submitted from now until the end of 2025. 

• UiO:Life Science will fund seven to eight interdisciplinary research projects, some of which are reserved for researchers who will have the Life Science Building as their workplace. Researchers from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. UiO:Life Science will hold workshops for potential applicants in January and February.

Courses and events

See the University of Oslo¡¯s calendar for an overview of all available courses. See also updated overviews of courses from UiO IT (in Norwegian) and the Updated course overview from the University Library.

Overview: Upcoming public defence.

• 3 December: Advent concert and christmas Tree Lighting at Universtitetsplassen (link in Norwegian).
• 5 December: Innovation hangout for academia and industry #2 2024. UiO Growth House welcomes you to this meeting place to inspire researchers and students, to boost their confidence and knowledge about the innovation process, help them build networks, and facilitate collaboration between academia and industry. This hangout is a collaboration with The Life Science Cluster. 
• 5 December: Oslo Peace Days: Fighting hunger and malnutrition in a sustainable human rights perspective.Organised by MED in collaboration with OsloMet. Wenche Barth Eide will represent MED. There are limited seats available in the auditorium. Remember to register in advance. Those who are unable to attend in person will receive a link for remote participation. 
• 9 December: Oslo Peace Days. Food as a Weapon of War. Join researchers and professionals from medicine, psychology, and other disciplines as they discuss and share their knowledge about food and war. Per Ole Iversen, who researches nutrition in African countries, will represent MED. The event is free and open to everyone but requires prior registration. 

• 11-12. February: Norway Life Science 2025. Theme: Health Data ¨C from Access to Value Creation and Groundbreaking Research. Save the dates now!

About our research

You can follow the faculty on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram

IMB: Vaccination helps to combat meningitis and blood poisoning. The number of cases of meningitis and blood poisoning is decreasing, and this is clearly due to the inclusion, since 2006, of pneumococcal disease into the child immunisation programme.
 

Medisinbloggen: What is the smartest acne treatment? by Cathrine Str?m Christiansen in Norwegian. A lot of antibiotics are used in the treatment of acne. This can contribute to antibiotic resistance. Fortunately, antibiotics are not the only way to treat acne.
 

IMB: The incidence of thin melanoma is increasing the most. Although thin melanomas are increasing the most, there is also a steady rise in thicker melanomas. This is shown by a large study on the incidence of melanoma in Norway since the 1980s. The thickness of the cancer tumour at the time of diagnosis is important for the prognosis, states Marit Veier?d.
 

Klinmed: Biological Medicines Increase the Risk of Serious Infections. People who use biological medicines for inflammatory joint diseases have twice the risk of developing serious infections. This is shown in a new doctoral thesis from the University of Oslo and Diakonhjemmet Hospital.

Helsam/ SHE: The Invisibility of LGBTQ+ People in International Aid (in Norwegian). There is a significant difference in how aid organisations discuss gender in their principle documents and programme plans, according to Hilde O. Vandeskog, who has researched this in her doctoral thesis.
 

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