With scientists from 32 nations

For the first time, non-Norwegians are in the majority at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. As a consequence of the Centre’s high success rate in acquiring research grants from external funding sources, there has been a rapid growth in personnel. The total number of academic (scientists, post-docs, PhD candidates), technical and administrative staff increased from 150 to 195 during the year. The Centre is recruiting people from all corners of the world, a total of 32 nations and all six continents are now represented among the staff. 

A number of changes

The Bjerknes Centre has experienced a number of changes during the past year: 

• There has been a new governance structure including changes to the board, a new leadership and new research groups. 
• The vision, scientific goals and strategies have been re-defined, and science and implementation plans have further been developed for each research group. 
• Eight new internal projects have been identified to pursue a variety of important and challenging scientific questions. These projects are funded by the core grant from the government, and are important for building new competence.

"The number of peer-reviewed publications increased significantly and the Centre is more visible than ever in producing good science. Close to 140 articles in international journals have been published, with five in the Nature and Science suite of journals", our Director prof. Tore Furevik writes in the Directors Comment of 2014.

Please take a look at the complete list of the 2014 publications here. 

Finances 2014 

The main sources of income for the Bjerknes Centre are a 12-year grant from the Ministry of Research and Education to the Centre for Climate Dynamics (SKD), and research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and the European Commission (EU).

The grant from the Ministry was for around 27 million kr in 2014 while the University of Bergen—SKD´s host—funds seven recruitment positions (PhD & postdocs) at BCCR. Grants from the RCN and EU accounted for almost 70% of the Centre´s total income in 2014. Other public funds included research grants from the Nordic Top Initiatives, NordForsk, EEF Norway, The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU), and Hordaland County Council & Regional Research Fund.

In-kind contributions from the partner institutions (E.g staff salary, ship time, computer resources, etc) are not included in the table above.

More to read in the annual report

The professors Tor Gammelsrød and Hilary Birks turned emerita and emeritus last year: 

Med blikk for fisk og fysikk // A practical view of physics and food

Festseminar for Hilary Birks // It's all in the detail