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faculty award

Faculty Internationalization Award to Elisabeth Wik

Congratulations to CCBIO's Elisabeth Wik for a very well deserved Faculty Internationalization Award! The prize was presented at the Faculty Day, June 13th 2019.

Elisabeth receiving the award from the dean.
Elisabeth receiving the award from Dean Per Bakke at the Faculty Day June 13, 2019.
Photo:
Geir Olav Løken/CCBIO

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The criteria for the prize are that it should stimulate and reward measures that promote increased internationalization in the study programs. Transfer value to other academic environments and study programs is emphasized.

In their nomination, the Department of Clinical Medicine emphasizes the many high quality activities completed, the great student evaluations, the learning outcome on many levels, increased internationalization in the study programmes, the transfer value of the CCBIO-INTPART activities to other faculty departments, and the national attention to the programme, even on government level. You can read the Department of Clinical Medicine’s nomination to the prize here (in Norwegian).

In his introduction, Dean Per Bakke informed that the INTPART project was very well received in the Norwegian Research Council's midway evaluation of CCBIO, and by their site visit in May. Both the Research Council and CCBIO's international advisory group have described the project as excellent and an example to follow - both nationally and internationally.

Elisabeth herself refers to this as a team effort. 

– This faculty award shows recognition of the work we have done in the CCBIO-INTPART programme. This is a prize to many more than myself, she emphasizes. – It of course goes to Lars A. Akslen and Roger Strand who initiated the CCBIO INTPART program, and it goes to the CCBIO administration and many members from Lars Akslen's and Roger Strand's groups who have been involved in the program activities, making them as great as they have become. No courses or seminars would have seen the light of day without the many contributions from my colleagues! Also a big thanks you to all our distinguished colleagues from the Vascular Biology Program (VBP) who have contributed a lot to all programme activities, and especially to the Director of the Vascular Biology Program, Dr. Marsha Moses, who also contributed herself with courses and seminars, and has been a solid supporter in the CCBIO-INTPART program, she says.

Elisabeth has not yet decided what the award money is to be used for, but is very happy with the opportunity to finance more CCBIO-INTPART activities. A trip to Boston might be in question, to learn more about the teaching methods applied at Harvard Medical School, both in the Master and PhD programs. She also hopes to pinpoint strategic efforts to make the collaboration programme sustainable for the years to come.  – CCBIO and the Faculty of medicine would greatly benefit from prolonging the collaboration beyond the time frame set in the INPART financing, which is till the end of 2020, she says. 

– Being coordinator for CCBIO-INTPART programme has been both challenging and exciting, Elisabeth explains. – I think we have achieved a lot through the program, such as excellent teaching for the students, great didactic examples for the scientific staff, and the formation of important contacts and networks. These are gains for CCBIO and other colleagues at our faculty alike. This has had immediate effect, and will hopefully also be useful in a long-term perspective, she says.

Elisabeth's colleagues sometimes wonders how she gets the time and energy she seems to put in all her activities. – When the day has a limited number of hours, I sometimes see that the hours spent planning and managing our INTPART activities could have been used for research time, she says. – Nevertheless, I am very happy for the involvement in the project, as it has strengthened our ties to colleagues at the Vascular Biology Program, hopefully for many years to come, to the advantage for many researchers and students at our faculty. Apart from that, I have also "uploaded" energy from great student feedback on the course activities - that is very rewarding for an organizer, she concludes.

The next step in the CCBIO-INTPART programme is a joint meeting on Iceland in August/September, and we look forward to what new ideas might emerge from there!