UiB Global Launches Newsletter to Highlight Research on Development Challenges

In February 2013 UiB Global launches the first newsletter covering UiB’s research on human and social development challenges. It includes articles on recent and upcoming events as well as new research projects and results. There will be six to eight editions each year.

The purpose of the newsletter is to inform readers of all the innovative research on global and development-related issues taking place at all corners of UiB. The ultimate goal is to inspire new directions and collaborations on future research projects of high relevance for human and social development.

– We believe this newsletter is an important step in making visible all the excellent and interesting research which is being done at the different faculties. We also encourage colleagues to have a look at our website uib.no/global, where news and events are updated regularly, says UiB Global’s administrative coordinator Kristin Svartveit.

All readers are invited to suggest news stories for the web page and the newsletter, by contacting UiB Global’s communications adviser Øyvind Gjerstad.

Click here to sign up for the newsletter.

Drawing on several disciplines to find answers to complex problems

UiB Global operates within the notion that global development challenges require multi-disciplinary mobilisation. UiB Global, CROP and the Department of Health Promotion and Development (HEMIL) have jointly initiated the project “Bridging health promotion and sustainability science: Transition to the green economy”, led by Professor Maurice Mittelmark at HEMIL. The question driving the project is the following: How can we better connect social and environmental sciences, to enhance the well-being of people and their environments, especially in the context of poverty?

– One of the roles of UiB Global is to create synergies across disciplines and institutions, in order to address tomorrow’s global challenges, and our mandate is to collaborate with partner institutions on all continents, including the global south. As this project involves partners in multiple disciplines from all corners of the world, it is a good example of how we can work towards achieving such synergies, says academic coordinator at UiB Global, Professor Gro Therese Lie.

Click here to learn more about the project.

UiB Global’s administrative coordinator Kristin Svartveit is currently working with researchers who plan to apply for funding within Norad’s Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for development (NORHED). The programme will finance collaborative relations between Norwegian institutions of higher education and partner institutions in the global south. In the programme’s first phase 97 projects were granted support, of which 25 have the University of Bergen as their main partner.

– UiB is the Norwegian institution which is most present in the NORHED programme. This shows that there is genuine interest in global and development-related topics at UiB, says Svartveit.

Click here to learn more.

Working closely with CMI

On behalf of the university UiB Global also collaborates closely with Chr. Michelsen’s Institute (CMI), which is located in the same building.

Both institutions are responsible for, and collaborate on, activities in the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development. Seminars and conferences in the Resource Centre have focused on a wide range of topics, including foreign aid, international health, poverty and conflicts in the Middle East, Central Africa and other regions of the world. These events have been attended by a large number of students, researchers and members of the public.

No less than 65 events were organised at the Resource Centre in 2012, the last of which was a seminar celebrating the open access book Neurology in Africa, published with financial and editorial support from UiB. Read more about the book and the seminar here.

Events can be organised and attended free of charge. For more information, visit resourcecentre.no.

UiB Global’s structure and activities

• UiB Global was established in 2010 with the aim of coordinating, managing and initiating global and development-related research across disciplines and faculties. The unit is located at Jekteviksbakken 31, in the same building as Chr. Michelsen’s Institute, next to the Law Faculty.
• UiB Global represents a unique structure compared to other institutions, because it builds on both basic and applied research in all faculties as well as activities across boundaries.
• UiB Global’s administration is part of the Division of Research Management. Professor Gro Therese Lie is the academic coordinator at UiB Global, and reports directly to the Rector. She is also the head of UiB’s Strategic Council for Global and Development-Related Research, which includes representatives from all the faculties at the University.
• UiB Global currently houses several multidisciplinary research programmes, such as the Nile Basin Research Programme (NBRP); the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP); the Centre for Middle East Research; and the secretariat of Bergen Summer Research School on Global Development Challenges (BSRS) for PhD students.

UiB Global also has the administration of a range of research networks and other kinds of networks, such as SANORD and diverse bilateral programmes.