Anne Christine Johannessen takes over as chair of the Worldwide Universities Network’s Public Health Global Challenge Steering Group.
“Taking responsibility like this inspires us to make an extra effort. We want to showcase what Worldwide Universities Network means for the University of Bergen. We want to get more of our researchers involved, and show them how the network’s resources can contribute to their own research,” says Anne Christine Johannessen, vice rector for international affairs at the University of Bergen (UiB).
She is the newly appointed chair of the Public Health Global Challenge Steering Group of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN).
Johannessen recently participated at the WUN-conference in Hong Kong with a delegation of UiB researchers.
WUN is a network of research universities aiming to build global research communities by supporting collaboration. For example, next year, the Bergen Summer Research School plans to use speakers and resources from WUN, and candidates from the participating universities will be encouraged to participate.
Experience from international health
The network has identified four Global Challenges as the focus for its resources and research programmes. Public Health is one of them.
“This is an area where UiB has very strong research groups,” Johannessen says.
She herself has a background from medicine and dentistry, and also worked for two years as a dentist in Cameroun, among other things.
“Experience from working in a developing country can be used in a wide variety of settings. There are very different opportunities for solving problems in a developing country versus a country like Norway where there are systems in place for everything,” Johannessen says.
Challenges and opportunities
In addition to the perks that come with being a researcher at a WUN institution, Johannessen says that the network is useful for talking through issues with universities from all continents.
“We see for example that students in many different countries are engaging in questions like research ethics in a new way. This goes for students from Hong Kong, from Cape Town and from Bergen,” she says.
This article is courtesy of the University of Bergen and can be found online at: http://www.uib.no/en/news/88656/vice-rector-joins-wun-leadership
