About SEFAS – Organization

In 2012, UiB, in collaboration with the G.C. Rieber Foundations, established the country's first Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine (SEFAS). Since the autumn of 2014, SEFAS has received basic funding from the National Budget, and receives project support from several key partners, including the G.C. Rieber Foundations, the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Vest), the Research Council of Norway (RCN), Eureka Eurostars, the European Research Council (ERC), the Trond Mohn Research Foundation (TMF) and the University of Bergen (UiB). SEFAS has 20 employees in an interdisciplinary environment and nine new staff members are expected to join us in 2025. We collaborate with, among others, Bergen Municipality, Haukeland University Hospital, Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, NORCE and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. We are geographically located on the health campus at Årstadvollen, in the Alrek Health Cluster, which constitutes a separate environment for innovative health and care solutions in collaboration with the Eitri Medical Incubator.

Board

SEFAS has a board consisting of Per Bakke (chair), dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UiB, Bjarne Robberstad, head of department at IGS, Nina Broch Mathisen, regional director of Innovation Norway of Western Norway, Kjell A. Wolff, municipal director of Bergen Municipality and Bettina S. Husebø, head of SEFAS. The board adopts strategies for research, innovation, education and other academic activities at the centre. The board is responsible for ensuring that the academic activities are of high quality, and that the centre is run efficiently and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and rules, as well as with the framework and goals set for the centre. The board also has overall responsibility for the centre's financial resources, property and internal organisation. The board meets twice a year. 

User Panel

One of SEFAS' strategic research goals is to cater to the user perspectives with the involvement and participation of patients, relatives, health personnel and volunteers to contribute to personalized treatment and care. In this regard, the centre has established an advisory user panel with the aim of strengthening the connection between the research and those who actually benefit from the results – patients, other older adults and their relatives. The user panel consists of six representatives who have direct experience with health and care services. 

Partnerships

SEFAS has established strong international partnerships, such as with the Leiden University and Exeter University in Europe, Tohoku University in Japan, and Yale University and Harvard University, McLean, in the United States. Participation in the COST network NET4AGE-FRIENDLY COST Action provides additional contacts in 27 European countries.

In Norway, we collaborate with the Norwegian National Centre for Ageing and Health, the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association, the Norwegian Smart Care Cluster, the Centre for Age-related Medicine (SESAM), the University of Oslo, the University of Tromsø, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. 

SEFAS collaborates with Neuro-SysMed, the first Norwegian centre for clinical treatment research on neurological diseases with a focus on multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and dementia. Neuro-SysMed is organized with nine nodes, where SEFAS participates as the Care node under the leadership of Bettina S. Husebø. Through Neuro-SysMed, SEFAS has, among other, access to a research school in translational neuroscience with courses and monthly seminars that are credit-giving for our students, support within relevant funding proposals, and joint project management on relevant projects.

Fixed meeting points

FEST seminar: One afternoon a month, SEFAS' staff and students participate in FEST's interdisciplinary seminars with focus on interprofessional collaboration in the health sector and research related to elderly health care and the field of pharmaceutics. The interdisciplinary seminar group is an arena for learning, dissemination, collaboration and professional development. It addresses relevant and current topics and strengthens collaboration across the academic communities.

The FEST environment also has daily, informal lunch meetings for everyone in the section who has the opportunity to participate.

Regular SEFAS meeting points: 

• Weekly early Monday meeting for all postdocs and permanently employed researchers (Bettina, Brice, Kamilla, Line, Monica, Valentina, Zoya) to clarify plans for the week ahead.
• Every other week there is a journal club where the PhD candidates give project presentations to their colleagues for practice in presentation techniques and peer review.
• Every other week there are project meetings for updates on ongoing projects, currently concerning the projects ActiveAgeing (the Helgetun and DIGI.PARK branches), 5-D/DIPH.DEM/ORAL.DEM, DARK.DEM and CC.AGE. Project meetings for EI ROBOT take place monthly. 
• Every other week we have individual supervision meetings for the PhD candidates where their supervisors follow up on the candidates’ progress, data collection and analyses.
• Monthly SEFAS meetings for all staff and students at the centre with updates on status and focus on current issues.
• Yearly lunch-to-lunch meetings with everyone related to FEST, including the user panel, with invited speakers, group work and interdisciplinary discussions.
• SEFAS' user panel members meet with their relevant research project group every 6 weeks, and the members of the user panel meet four times a year. 
• Regular, informal Christmas lunch for everyone once a year.
• Regular, informal Easter lunch for everyone once a year.
• Informal summer party for everyone once a year.