Mathea Loen

I am running for the University Board as representative for group B, because I am concerned with our welfare and needs. I want them to be taken seriously and promoted at the Board and the UiB Leadership to the benefit of temporary employees and the university in general. Here are some of the things I want to fight for if I am elected.

It is important to me that temporary employees at UiB feel heard at all institutional levels. I therefore want to work for good representation of group B in all boards and committees at department, faculty and administration levels. Furthermore, I want to improve communication and the stream of information within and to group B.

All temporary employees at UiB deserve good working conditions. The past year has been tough on everyone, but perhaps particularly hard for us temporary employees and our projects. All PhD candidates, postdocs, and researchers should be able complete their projects without it affecting the quality of their projects or their mental health. UiB must facilitate extended deadlines when necessary. Mental health is also a very relevant and important topic, and I want UiB to implement better services and support measures for their employees.

I will work towards giving group B the training and competence needed to qualify for permanent positions in academia, and to succeed outside academia. Therefore, we need good courses, experience in teaching, supervision, application writing and project leadership, the opportunity to participate at national and international conferences and seminars where we can present our work and build networks, and the ability to participate in relevant research groups.

I also want to work for better and more attractive career opportunities for PhD candidates, postdocs and researchers. Appropriate use of tenured positions gives the research communities opportunities to recruit good researchers and teachers, and it ensures that younger researchers qualify for permanent positions in the future. This entails access to good career planning tools, supervision, and mentoring, and allocation of these positions in the budgets.

UiB should be a frontrunner when it comes to emission cuts and sustainability. There are many ways in which we can improve, and I want to make sure that we make the right decisions when it comes to running and maintaining UiB facilities, prioritise climate change and sustainability research, and the dissemination of this research. UiB must prioritise reducing emissions and finding new, green energy sources for us to reach our goal of net zero emissions. UiB should be a role model in Norway and internationally.

It is important that UiB counters the anti-intellectualism that is growing in our societies, nationally and internationally. We must make our research available and comprehensible and join the debates. Gender equality, diversity and internationalisation are highly important issues that still need to be addressed. By recruiting good students and researchers from different genders and backgrounds from the whole world, and by entering international collaborations, we will contribute to excellent research and high-quality teaching, and we will put UiB on the map!