UoB : Office of International Relations : Research programmes : EU

Main fields of EU cooperation
at the University of Bergen

The University of Bergen has extensive ongoing cooperation with other European institutions. It holds membership in several European institutional networks and associations as well as participating actively in European education and research programmes. UoB was holding 90 research contracts within the EU's Fourth Framework Programme, total of 15 MECU for the Bergen part. 24 of these projects were coordinated by UoB. In addition UoB holds several ODL projects within SOCRATES and LEONARDO. As outlined below the University of Bergen has gained top European competence within telecommunication, high performance computing, marine sciences, environmental sciences and medicine/health.

• Telecommunication
• Computing
• Culture
• Marine sciences
• Medicine/Health
  
  

Telecommunication

Approximately 200 persons are involved in ODL (Open Distance Learning) activities at different stages, including the interdisciplinary research programme Humanities Information Technologies (HIT) which involves the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities ; the interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and international programme Educational Information Science & Technology Programme (EIST); the Department of Research and Education (Virtue project) and the Centre for Continuing Education (SEVU) collaborating with the UoB faculties; the Centre of European Cultural Studies and the Centre of International Health .

UoB has participated actively in the development and implementation of the Socrates-ODL programme HUMANITIES , and is coordinating the 100+ partners Socrates Thematic Network: ACO*HUM - Advanced COmputing in the HUManities. Besides participating in 6 other thematic networks it is coordinating SOCRATES projects and is an active core partner in other EU projects (EUCEN, Open to Europe, VIRTUE/EURO/ISDN).

UoB is also, through its Centre for Continuing Education, accepted as a EuroStudy centre linked to EADTU. Efforts are now being made at UoB to promote ODL as a field of special interest.

The University Library is heavily involved in online research documentation projects through CORDIS and DGXIII. Also, UoB has through different departments been involved in several TELEMATICS projects both in Language Engineering and Education and Training.

Computing

UoB is a partner in a network of High Performance Parallel Computing (HPC) "centres-of-excellence " in Europe. The Department of Informatics and the High Performance Computing Centre holds several contracts in ESPRIT IV.

Culture

A Centre for European Cultural Studies was established in 1992. Its main task is to promote and coordinate large-scale interdisciplinary research projects on European culture within a framework of international research. Both the Humanities Information Technologies programme and Bergen Museum are coordinating RAPHAEL projects on European humanistic manuscripts and cultural landscapes respectively. For the Year 2000, Bergen was designated as a European Cultural City with the involvement of UoB.

Marine sciences

UoB is coordinating and participating in a range of MAST, ENVIRONMENT and FAIR projects dealing with oceanography, marine geology, microbiology, sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and environmental impact on living resources. Among them, UoB is coordinating ESOP-2 , a 5 MECU MAST project surveying the thermohaline circulation in the Greenland Sea and its impact on global ocean circulation and a 19-partner concerted action on sustainable fisheries involving 14 European countries.

In the TMR programme, UoB is coordinating the Large Scale Facility Marine Pelagic Food Chain from 1996-99 which is the only marine biotechnology installation in TMR. Only 22 universities in Europe are coordinating large-scale-facilities in the TMR programme, underpinning the academic strength of Bergen in marine sciences.

Medicine/Health

In medicine, UoB researchers are coordinating about 75% of the Norwegian contracts with Brussels through BIOMED, BIOTECH and the INCO programmes. In health sciences, UoB is especially strong in collaboration projects with developing countries, matching a nationally funded portfolio of NOK 70 million/year (1992-2000) with an INCO portfolio of NOK 20 mill. for the period 1996-98. UoB is designated as a WHO collaboration centre both for Information on Vaccines and Vaccination Policy and for Health Promotion .