Two new Centres of Excellence to the University of Bergen
Center for Digital Narrative and Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting in Health have been awarded the status as Centres of Excellence (SFF) from the Research Council of Norway.
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The centre leaders are Ole Frithjof Norheim and Guri Rørtveit at the Faculty of Medicine (Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting in Health), and Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg at the Faculty of Humanities (Center for Digital Narrative).
The two centres will each receive 155 million NOK in funding from The Research Council of Norway.
"I wish to congratulate the centre leaders and the scientific communities at the two faculties. These centres will give important perspectives on major societal issues; about the understanding of how digital narratives shape society, and fair prioritization of health resources", UiB rector Margareth Hagen says.
"We are looking forward to following the work at the new centres. They will contribute with important research and lay a good foundation in their fields for many years to come", she adds.
Center for Digital Narrative
The centre will be led by professors Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg, Faculty of Humanities. CDN will do humanities-driven research in electronic literature, games studies, digital culture, and computation to advance understanding of digital narrative.
CDN focuses on algorithmic narrativity, new environments and materialities, and shifting cultural contexts. The researchers will investigate how the interactions of human authors with non-human agents result in new narrative forms, how the materiality of digital narratives have changed, and how cultural contexts are reshaping the use and function of digital narrative.
"This gives us a unique opportunity to build a really strong environment based on humanities-driven research. We have worked really hard for this for many years, so that we have reached this goal is simply fantastic", Scott Rettberg says.
Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting in Health
The centre will be led by professors Ole Frithjof Norheim and Guri Rørtveit and will build on ongoing applied research in universal health coverage decision support.
"We now have the opportunity to really delve deep into questions about efficient and fair prioritisation of scarce health resources".
This was BCEPS Director Ole Frithjof Norheim's reaction to the news of BCEPS' new status as a Centre of Excellence, as he went on to say how extremely happy and grateful he is for such recognition of the research environment here at the University of Bergen.
- Read more: BCEPS is awarded Centre of Excellence Status
- See the web page of Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting in Health
A good foundation
UiB rector Margareth Hagen praises all those who have worked for a long time on the application process, including those who today did not receive the SFF status.
"Some finalists are disappointed today. But a number of good ideas have been brought forward in the process. This may make a foundation for important research projects in the future, regardless of the result in this competition. On behalf of The University of Bergen, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed", Hagen says.
In total, 9 centres in Norway were awarded Centre of Excellence Status from the Research Council.
Centres of Excellence
The "Centres of Excellence (SFF)" scheme gives Norway’s foremost scientific circles the opportunity to organise their activities in centres that seek to achieve ambitious scientific objectives through collaboration and long-term basic funding.
The SFFs work with ambitious ideas and complex problems. Their primary objective is to conduct targeted, focused, long-term research of high international calibre, with researcher training and international collaboration as important secondary objectives.
