Foto: Eivind Senneset
We at BIO are leaders in the bioscience research environment, and it is our responsibility to ensure that we continue to stay at the forefront of research. In our time, this means that one of the most important prerequisites for maintaining high research activity and quality is securing external funding. BIO has a strong tradition of being good at obtaining BOA funding, and we must continue to build on this in a time where the competition for funds is becoming increasingly tougher. This year and next year, there are two major calls from the Research Council of Norway (NFR) that are particularly important for BIO. We have one (1) submitted application this fall, for a Centre for Research-Driven Innovation (SFI), which we regard highly! At the same time, efforts are already underway to produce good applications for the Centre of Excellence (SFF), with the next call planned for 2025 (application deadline late fall 2025) and with estimated project start-up towards the end of 2027. The SFF scheme gives scientific environments the opportunity to organize themselves into centers and receive funding for up to ten years (six + four years). At BIO, we currently have one initiative under development, which is fantastic! But we certainly have room for more! There are many environments at BIO that undoubtedly have the potential to write SFF applications that can reach the top. As Dean Gunn Mangerud recently said at the general meeting here at BIO, the door is still open if anyone are sitting on the fence about starting an SFF application. If you are one of those considering applying, I hereby invite you to a chat!
After the many successful allocations of research projects to BIO recently (see the previous BIO news), I was contacted last week by the Research and Innovation Department at UiB (FIA), who wanted to congratulate us on the fantastic results. In a few days, I and the research administration at BIO will have a meeting with FIA to review how we work on applications at BIO and how research administrative support, both from BIO and from FIA, can be further developed so that the application process for everyone seeking external funding is as good as possible. It is you who are in the application processes that know the needs best, so if anyone has matters they would like to raise in this regard, I would love to hear from you.
Next week is fall break for many. I wish everyone a very good week and cross my fingers for fantastic autumn weather! Have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Ståle