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Election at UiT

This autumn, a supplementary election of a female deputy representative to the University Board will be held from employees in permanent academic positions. 

Currently, the University Board do not have a female deputy representative from employees in permanent academic positions. According to Section 28 of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act, both genders should be represented. This also applies to deputy members. 

The schedule for the election is as follows: 

Announcement of the election  November 1st 
Announcement of the election  November 10th 
Publication of candidate proposals  November 15th 
Voting period  November 20th–24th  
Announcement of election results  November 27th   


I am an associate professor of special education, affiliated with the Department of Education (ILP) within the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (HSL). My primary office is situated in Alta, though I'm actively involved in teaching in both Alta and Tromsø. I hold a PhD in Mathematics Education and have previously worked in the field of mathematics teacher education. 

Kven and Sami languages and cultures are cornerstones in my work, both in terms of teaching and research. I am privileged to serve as the leader for the research group Cultural Diversity in Mathematics Education (CuDiME), which you can learn more about at https://uit.no/research/cudime. I am also a member of the NFR-funded research project, Mathematics Education in Indigenous and Migrational Contexts (MIM). The MIM project maintains a website available in Norwegian, English, Northern Sami, and Kven. You can access the Kven version of the website at www.usn.no/mim/kvaani

I would like to contribute to UiT's development as a national and international forefront when it comes to knowledge and expertise related to Kven and Sami languages and cultures. This endeavor serves two vital objectives: 1) strengthening the Kven and Sami languages and cultures and, 2) recruiting and preparing students to be lifelong learners. In the long term, this effort holds the potential to contribute to more young people being attracted to and remaining in the region. 



I am currently a professor of organic chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and have been employed at UiT since 1998. As a researcher, I am motivated by the impact of my research in solving societal problems. My research group focus on drug development, where we are particularly interested in antibiotic resistance, and the design of drugs from marine natural substances, and new methods for converting CO2 into fine chemicals such as drugs. Lately, I and several colleagues at UiT joined forces to expand our research towards CO2 capture and we just received support for a research project within this topic. I have led both individual research projects and research networks, and participated in international research networks (e.g. NordForsk Nordic University Hub and COST). I have experience from academic and innovation research and I am a co-founder of the start-up company KinSea Lead Discovery AS. As a teacher, I am concerned with developing good teaching plans without losing focus on the use of resources. 

I have just finished a one-year term as Head of department. Through this work, I am familiar with several of the processes initiated at UiT lately. I have experience from various boards (MabCent-SFI, Hylleraas, ELIXIR-Norge), and committees. For example, I have been a member of the board of MabCent-SFI, Hylleraas, ELIXIR-Norge and contributed to the study portfolio review, and UiT's work with UHR's new recommendations for assessment of scientific competence (NOR-CAM). 

Topics that I am particularly interested in are 

  • Good and varied study programs that cover the breadth of society's needs and, not least, how we can become better at collaborate across faculties to maximise the use of UiT's teaching resources and competances. 
  • Good plans and improvement of procedures for infrastructure financing. 
  • Good career guidance for young workers and a clear structures for academic careers that limit temporary employment. 
  • More transparency and clearer communication about the university management's work and objectives. 


I am an associate Professor at the School of Business and Economics at UiT. I have a PhD within Business Administration from the Nord University in Bodø. 

My research is mainly within marketing subjects, with a special focus on consumer experiences. 

Before entering academia I have several years management experience from positions within the tourism and cultural industry.  

My main motivation for being a board member is an interest in developing and securing the UiT´s  position as a University in North Norway.  



I am an associate professor at Department of Community Medicine (ISM), a statistician with a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics. Besides my background in mathematical sciences, I hold a master’s degree in music performance. 

I am the scientific coordinator of The Norwewgian Women and Cancer Study (NOWAC), a national population-based health survey including 172 000 participants. Since the study was established in 1991, a large amount of high quality cancer research has been produced, and we are now planning to extend the aim of the study to cover other disease and health outcomes. By obtaining broad consents and collecting new data from questionnaires and register linkages, we intend to provide data suitable for research on women’s health within a broad range of outcomes. 

Since my PhD work I have been dedicated to the field of social inequalities in health, with an increased focus the last years as a leader group member of the project «Healthy choices and the social gradient» at ISM. At the next step of NOWAC, we will collect data from the next generation, making it possible to initiate multidisciplinary studies on intergenerational transmissions of health and inequality, which will become my primary focus the coming years. 

As a statistician, I have been involved in a variety of projects, mainly in health research, but also within other fields. With a various background and field of interest according to both research and other activities, I think it would be valuable to have the opportunity to join The University Board when needed. 



Election result: These are now entering the University Board (10.06.21)

See video presentation by Associate Professor Marcus Buck: Electoral arrangements at UiT

Election app: http://stemme.uit.no



Do you have questions about the election? 

Please contact senior adviser Liv-Ragna Garden.