Nyhetsbrev – Institutt for biovitenskap

Foto: Eivind Senneset, UiB

Now the days are hectic for all of us; so hectic that we may sometimes slip.  For that reason, we sound that we suddenly had very limited time to register research groups for NFR’s forthcoming BIOfag evaluation. I wish we had a more thorough process, but we had to throw ourselves around. And we ended up enrolling the following research groups for the evaluation: Fish health, Microbiology, Environmental and Aquaculture biology, Terrestrial ecology, Theoretical ecology and Coastal and fjord ecology. One of the criteria laid down by NFR is that there should be at least 5 permanent scientific employees in each group. Although the process went fast, I am satisfied with the reported list. The actual evaluation will take place in the autumn. I look forward to it.

The process of reducing the overall area that we use, is close to a conclusion, but still not entirely finalized.  We have recently officially reported to EIA (the Estate and facilities management division) which areas we want to dispose of. Based on this, we aim to work out the plan for the actual process of moving persons and facilities affected, before the summer holidays.  That will enable us to start moving soon after the holidays. Julie and I will contact “faggruppelederne” to initiate the process.

There has been some ambiguity regarding the administration and distribution of compulsory work for PhD students. This is unfortunate for everyone; the research fellows themselves, course coordinators, supervisor and the department. We are in the process of preparing clear routines and guidelines for the duty work, so that we handle this better in the future. More info will follow before the summer.

Our long-standing and excellent HSE coordinator; Evy, leaves after many years of hard and fantastic work in a very important area for BIO. Her efforts, and of course also those who have worked together with her, have made BIO a beacon in HSE work at UIB and are really noticed and listened to. Evy; Thank you very much for your efforts. And I am very happy to be able to inform that Ann Kristin Frøyset will take over as HSE coordinator at BIO. As I know Ann Kristin, this function is thus in the best hands, and I am sure that Ann Kristin will continue to lead the HSE work at BIO together with the rest of the HSE team in a very good way. Thank you so much Ann Kristin.

I wish you all a really good Pentecost holiday.

Mvh Ørjan

Foto: Eivind Senneset, UiB

Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a good May 17 celebration in fine weather. I had the pleasure of joining the parade with the rest of UiB and it was nice that we were a small group there from BIO. We would like to be more, so next year we will mobilize properly.

Yesterday I sent out an overview of the areas we want to sell to the Estate and Facilities Management Division (EIA). There are still some clarifications needed before everything is completely clear, especially in relation to MBS (Espegrend) and the areas in the A-block. We will have a new meeting with EIA and the Faculty next week. In any case, I expect that we can start moving soon. We have an ambition to get most things done before the summer, but we will of course take into account holiday arrangements, exam completion and of course lab operations. We will be back soon with more info and detailed planning of the process further.

Frank Nilsen has received a new EU project. It is very gratifying, congratulates Frank. Now that the NFR seems to have to tighten up, the EU will become even more important as a source of funding for our activities in the future. I have mentioned earlier that we at BIO should turn more of our efforts towards the EU, and in this connection we are arranging an information meeting on EU funding, together with the FIA, on 30 May. I hope for a good turnout and that we see the opportunities here.

Good news: BIO received funding from Meltzer to arrange a academic-social day. We need that. The focus will be on external funding, especially the EU. We aim to arrange this in early autumn.

There is full pressure on the submission of master’s theses, with a deadline of 1 June, and the completion of the master’s examination at the moment. As you know, we will have an internal examiner for each master’s exam, and I ask you all to join the ranks when you are asked by the study administration. And I thank you all who are involved for an outstanding effort in implementing this for the benefit of our master’s students and BIO.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Ørjan