Pandemien fortsetter ? kreve mye av oss. Og ideen om ? vise t?lmodighet m?ter motstand fra nye mutasjoner og forsinkede 澳门葡京手机版app下载. I tillegg skal mange av oss flytte ut av kontorene i Eilert Sundts hus i n?r fremtid. Jeg har selv litt problemer med ? se hvordan mitt ryddighetsutfordrede kontor skal kunne transformeres til noe nedpakket og utryddet i l?pet av bare noen uker – spesielt med s? strenge beskjeder om ? jobbe hjemmefra som vi f?r for tiden.
Stor s?knadsinnsats
Da er det fint for meg som forskningsdekan ? se at s?knadsinnsatsen fremdeles er stor. ?rets s?knadsfrist i 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det var flyttet fra mai til februar. Det gjorde at alle som fikk avslag p? s?knadene sine i fjor og gjerne ville pr?ve igjen, kun hadde to knappe m?neder p? ? relansere forskningsideene sine for en ny s?knad – i tillegg til ? drive hjemmeskole og alt annet som skal gj?res i denne situasjonen.
Det ble i ?r sendt inn 67 s?knader til 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det med SV-forskere som prosjektledere. I tillegg ble det sendt inn mange s?knader der SV-forskere er partnere.
Av de 67 s?knadene er det 43 s?knader som utelukkende s?ker midler fra FRIPRO, 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets program for banebrytende forskning. Flere av de ?vrige 24 s?knadene er sendt med ?nsker om ogs? ? bli vurdert for FRIPRO.
Den enheten ved SV-fakultetet som sender inn flest s?knader, er naturlig nok det st?rste instituttet, Psykologisk institutt (PSI), med 32 s?knader der PSI-forskere er prosjektledere. Med ni s?knader fra ISV, syv fra ISS, seks hver fra ?I og ARENA, fem fra SAI og to fra TIK er alle enhetene p? banen.
En av utlysningene under FRIPRO i ?r er Fellesl?ftet, som er et spleiselag mellom 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det og s?kerinstitusjonen. Denne utlysningen var opprinnelig satt opp i fjor, men ble utsatt til i ?r p? grunn av pandemien. Fellesl?ftet har for f?rste gang et krav om tverrfaglighet mellom to eller flere disipliner. De fire s?knadene fra SV-fakultetet til Fellesl?ftet koordineres av PSI (tre s?knader) og ARENA (en s?knad). Men forskere ved SV-fakultetet er ogs? med p? flere s?knader som koordineres av andre enheter ved UiO.
Lurt ? lytte til kritikken
Det har etter den siste tildelingen fra 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det like f?r jul v?rt en interessant diskusjon i mediene om vurderingskriteriene i 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det og om hvorvidt 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets arbeid med ? skille god forskning fra d?rlig forskning er bra nok. Det er ?penbart lurt at denne debatten har kommet i gang, og det er veldig lurt av 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det ? lytte til kritikken. Det er ogs? n?dvendig at besluttende myndigheter tenker igjennom hva de vil med 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det.
Det er mange gode hensikter som m? bli skj?ttet p? en god m?te for at 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets virksomhetskostnader p? 839 millioner kroner (if?lge ?rsregnskapet deres for 2019) skal rettferdiggj?res.
Alternativet til ? ha et forskningsr?d kunne v?re ? kanalisere de litt over 10 milliarder kronene som dagens ordning for tiden fordeler per ?r, direkte til de forskende institusjonene. Det ville gitt mer penger til forskning. Men til tross for alt vi kan mene om 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets kriterier og evalueringsmetoder, er det ikke sikkert at dette alternativet ville gi mer god forskning. Og her ved SV-fakultetet ser vi at vi f?r sv?rt god uttelling hos 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det for tiden – for eksempel fikk vi tilslag p? s?knader til en verdi av 123 millioner kroner ved den siste tildelingen rett f?r jul. S? i den grad vi ikke skal se lenger enn v?r egen nesetipp, skal vi ikke klage for hardt p? tingenes tilstand.
St?rre fokus p? tverrfaglig forskning
Ved siden av 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det har vi selvsagt EU-midler. Her har Horisont Europa-programmet overtatt for Horisont 2020. Det er en del endringer i innretningen av de tematiske utlysningene.
Samfunnsutfordringene har blitt endret til globale utfordringer, og det er et enda st?rre fokus p? store tverrfaglige forskningsomr?der knyttet til disse globale utfordringene.
ERC, som er EUs satsing p? banebrytende forskning, har SV-fakultetet hatt stor suksess med frem til n?, med 17 tildelinger s? langt. Vi skal derfor v?re glade for at ERC fortsetter med det samme settet av utlysinger, der det n? utover ?ret er frister for, i rekkef?lge, Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants og Advanced Grants.
Den f?rste fristen er 8. april og gjelder ERC Starting Grants for forskere som tok doktorgrad for mellom to og syv ?r siden. Her har vi et felt med fire av v?re forskere som gikk videre til andre runde i 2020 og dermed har et lovende utgangspunkt for ? sende inn fornyede s?knader. Vi har dessuten en del nye ERC-s?kere. S? selv om vi ikke fikk mye uttelling hos ERC i 2020 etter noen gode ?r tidligere, har vi et veldig godt utgangspunkt for nye tildelinger i ?r, og ikke minst i ?rene fremover.
Kommer til ? t?re p? oss
Det er mye forskerliv som leves utenom s?knadsskrivingen ogs?. Det faglig-sosiale livet rundt p? enhetene har hatt store utfordringer n? mens koronaen har herjet. Blant annet har det ikke v?rt mulig ? f? bes?k av utenlandske forskere til seminarer og lignende. Og oppdateringer ved kaffemaskinen begynner ? bli fjerne minner. P? toppen av det hele skal vi f? dette livet til ? fungere i midlertidige lokaler frem til neste sommer. Det er ikke tvil om at dette kommer til ? t?re p? oss.
Samtidig er det viktig ? tenke p? at vi har ressurser som gj?r at vi kommer til ? klare dette, at vi har forskningsmilj?er som er vant til ? jobbe sammen og vant til ? ta godt imot nytilsatte kolleger og nyopptatte ph.d.-studenter.
Under vinter-OL i St. Moritz i 1928 kom det norske laget i milit?rt patruljel?p – en slags forl?per for dagens skiskyting – ut for stygt v?r. Og rett f?r en lengre utforkj?ring ropte laglederen Ole Reistad – han som senere, under andre verdenskrig, skulle bygge opp den norske flygerskolen Little Norway i Canada – ut de legendariske ordene ?Samling i b?nn, gutter!? Det l?pet endte tross alt med gull for Norge. Vi f?r g? for noe tilsvarende.
Editorial: Let’s meet at the bottom!
“Although we did not obtain much support from the European Research Council in 2020 after a few good years, we have a very good starting point for new allocations from them this year, and not least in the years to come," writes Research Dean Tore Nilssen. He is impressed by the application efforts at the Faculty of Social Sciences during the pandemic.
The pandemic continues to demand a lot of us. And the idea of showing patience is confronted with new mutations and delayed vaccines. In addition, many of us will move out of the offices in Eilert Sundt's hus in the near future. Personally, I have some difficulty in seeing how my somewhat untidy office can be packed down and cleared out in just a few weeks – especially when we are currently receiving such strict advice to work from home.
Great application effort
It is good for me as Research Dean to see what a great effort that continues to bemade in preparing and submitting applications. This year's deadline for applications to the Research Council of Norway was backdated from May to February. This means that anyone who had their applications rejected last year and would like to try again has barely two months to relaunch their research ideas in a new application – in addition to being responsible for home schooling and everything else that needs to be done in the current situation.
This year, 67 applications were submitted to the Research Council of Norway with researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences as principal investigators.
In addition, many applications were submitted with researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences as partners. Of the 67 applications, 43 applications are exclusively applying for funding from FRIPRO, which is the Research Council's programme for groundbreaking research. However, many of the other 24 applications have beensubmitted with requests to also be considered for FRIPRO.
The unit at the Faculty of Social Sciences that submits the most applications is, naturally, the largest department, the Department of Psychology (PSI), with 32 applications where PSI researchers are principal investigators. But all units are active, with 9 applications from the Department of Political Science, 7 from the Department of Social Science, 6 each from the Department of Economics and ARENA, 5 from the Department of Social Anthropology and 2 from TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture.
One of the announcements under FRIPRO this year is Fellesl?ftet, which is a cost-sharing arrangement between the Research Council and the applicant institution. This call was originally planned for last year, but was postponed until this year due to the pandemic. For the first time, Fellesl?ftet has a requirement for interdisciplinary cooperation between two or more disciplines. The four applications from the Faculty of Social Sciences to Fellesl?ftet are coordinated by the Department of Psychology (3 applications) and ARENA (1 application). However, researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences are also included in several applications coordinated by other units at the University of Oslo.
It's a good idea to listen to criticism
Following the last allocation from the Research Council of Norway just before Christmas, there has been an interesting discussion in the media about the assessment criteria in the Research Council and whether the Research Council's work in distinguishing good research from bad research is good enough. It is obviously good that this debate has started, and it is very wise of the Research Council to listen to the criticism. But it is also necessary that the decision-making authorities think through what they want to achieve with the Research Council.
There are many good intentions that need to be properly h dealt with in order that the Research Council's operating costs of NOK 839 million (according to their financial statements for 2019) can be justified.
The alternative to having a research council could be to channel the slightly over NOK 10 billion that the current scheme distributes per year, directly to the research institutions. This would give more money to research. However, despite everything we may think about the Research Council's criteria and evaluation methods, it is not clear that this option would result in more good research. And here at the Faculty of Social Sciences, we see that we are currently receiving very good results from the Research Council of Norway – for example, we received approval of applications worth NOK 123 million at the last allocation just before Christmas. So to the extent that we do not need to look further than the end of our noses, we should not complain too harshly about the current state of affairs.
Greater focus on interdisciplinary research
We have of course funding from the European Union, in addition to the Research Council of Norway. Here, the Horizon Europe programme has taken over for Horizon 2020. There are some amendments to the arrangement of the thematic announcements.
Social challenges have become global challenges, and there is an even greater focus on major interdisciplinary fields of research associated with these global challenges.
The Faculty of Social Sciences has had great success to date, having received 17 awards from the European Research Council - the European Union’s commitment to groundbreaking research. We should therefore be pleased that the European Research Council continues with the same set of announcements, for which there are now deadlines throughout this year for Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants and Advanced Grants, in that order. The first deadline is 8 April and applies to ERC Starting Grants for researchers who earned a doctoral degree between 2 and 7 years ago. Here we have a field of four of our researchers who progressed to the second round in 2020 and thus have a promising starting point for submitting renewed applications. We also have some new ERC applicants. Although we did not obtain much support from the European Research Council in 2020 after a few good years, we have a very good starting point for new allocations this year, and not least in the years to come.
It’s going to wear us down
But there is also more to life as a researcher than writing applications. The professional-social life around the units has experienced great challenges while the corona has been wreaking havoc with us. Among other things, it has not been possible to invite foreign researchers to seminars and the like. And memories of updates at the coffee machine are starting to fade. On top of all that, we are going to need this life to function in temporary premises until next summer. There is no doubt this is going to wear us down.
At the same time, it is important to consider that we have the resources that enable us to do this, that we have research groups that are used to working together and are accustomed to welcoming newly-appointed colleagues and new intakes of PhD students.
At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, the Norwegian team in the military patrol race – a kind of precursor to today's biathlon – was exposed to nasty weather. And just before a long downhill run, team leader Ole Reistad – who later, during World War II, was to build up the Norwegian flying school Little Norway in Canada – shouted the legendary words "Let’s meet at the bottom, boys!" In spite of everything, that race ended up with a gold medal for Norway. We should aim for something similar.