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Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms

The goal of the Bilingual Experiences, Cognitive Ageing and underlying Mechanisms (BECAME) project is to examine the functional neuroplastic mechanisms underlying mitigatory effects of bilingual experience on age-related cognitive decline. While evidence is available for structural brain changes supporting bilingualism-induced effects on cognitive aging (CA), functional mechanisms underlying such effects are not yet well understood. BECAME aims to fill this gap by investigating the trajectory of bilingualism-induced functional neuroplasticity across the adult lifespan (ages 18-85), crucially adopting an individual differences approach related to measurable degree of bilingual engagement. Importantly, although such benefits are thought to be rooted early in the lifespan, evidence for the timeframe and conditions of their early emergence is scarce. The choice of including the whole adult lifespan allows us to investigate these mechanisms and their emergence more directly from a lifespan perspective. I combine behavioral testing with brain recordings via electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is widely used in cognitive neuroscience to assess brain activity and the degree of communication between brain regions (functional connectivity) in response to stimuli and at rest. Combining behavioral and EEG modalities will allow me to test bilingualism’s effect on functional connectivity, as well as its consequences for functional efficiency, the minimum required neural activation to successfully perform a task. This will enable a detailed, evidence-based account of the protective effects observed in older-aged bilinguals, and how they are built from earlier life stages. By illuminating the relationship between multilingualism and resulting neurocognitive adaptations, BECAME will enable to capitalize on it as a health initiative, with manifold societal implications and the potential to be translated into actionable policies exploiting multilingualism to ameliorate effects of CA.

Hovedmålet med kreftbehandling er å eliminere kreftceller og dette er tradisjonelt oppnådd ved kirurgi, bruk av giftige medikamenter (cellegift) og stråling. En ny og betydningsfull tilnærming til kreftbehandling kalt immunterapi, har derimot fått mye oppmerksomhet det siste tiåret; Her forsøker leger og forskere å utnytte immunsystemet vårt for å målrettet  ødelegge kreftceller. En nøkkelaktør i denne banebrytende tilnærmingen er en gruppe «drapsmenn» i immunsystemet kjent som cytotoxiske T-lymfocytter (CTL-er). Disse cellene har en bemerkelsesverdig evne til å oppdage kreftceller ved å gjenkjenne unormale molekyler på overflaten av kreftcellene - molekyler som friske celler ikke har. Når CTL-er gjenkjenner kreftcellene ødelegger de dem ved å frigjøre giftige molekyler som initierer kreftcellenes selvdestruksjon. 
 
Selv om betydelige innsats har blitt dedikert til å forstå hvordan CTL-er aktiveres og hvordan de gjenkjenner kreftceller, vet vi mindre om de påfølgende hendelsene inne i kreftcellene som fører til deres død. Fra før vet vi at CTL-er kan initiere to forskjellige typer celledød i kreft: den første, kalt apoptose, er en stille og ordnet prosess der kreftcellene krymper og brytes opp uten å varsle immunsystemet; den andre, kalt pyroptose, er en mer dramatisk prosess som involverer dannelse av åpninger i cellemembranen, noe som fører til at cellene svulmer opp og sprekker. Under denne cellebristen blir innholdet inne i cellene frigitt i omgivelsene, og dette kan fungere som 'faretegn' som kan stimulere en sterkere immunrespons mot kreftcellene. Betydningen av denne cellebristen for å forsterke anti-tumorresponsene vil bli undersøkt i dette prosjektet. 
 
Videre er vi fascinert av muligheten for å avdekke ytterligere, ennå ukjente, former for celledød indusert av CTL-er. Utforsking av disse dødsrelaterte prosessene i kreftcellene kan potensielt øke effektiviteten av immunterapi og bidra betydelig i den pågående kampen mot kreft.

The primary goal of most cancer therapies is to induce cancer cell death. Immunotherapy relies on the cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes such as natural killer cells (NKs) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to achieve this. While a significant amount of research in immunotherapy focuses on the events within cytotoxic lymphocytes or at the interface between cytotoxic lymphocytes and cancer cells, less is known about the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate cancer cell death, particularly in the case of CTL-mediated death.
CTLs are known to induce two types of cell death in cancer: non-inflammatory apoptosis and proinflammatory pyroptosis. Pyroptotic cancer cells release proinflammatory signals that attract immune cells to the tumor site, thereby enhancing the anti-tumor response. Cell lysis is a common outcome of pyroptotic cell death. It is unclear whether lysis can be decoupled from pyroptosis in cancer cells and whether the proinflammatory properties of pyroptotic cancer cell death depend on lysis. Moreover, it remains unknown whether CTLs can induce other forms of cell death in cancer, apart from apoptosis and pyroptosis.
Studying the mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death is challenging because CTLs selectively target cells expressing specific antigens. However, given the critical role of CTLs in immunotherapy, it is essential to deepen our understanding of CTL-induced cancer cell death.
This project aims to develop novel methodologies to investigate the death mechanisms that are initiated by CTLs. In addition, we will identify new pathways and mediators involved in CTL-induced cancer cell death. Furthermore, we will assess the contribution of proinflammatory cell death and lysis in promoting anti-tumor responses in vivo. Overall, this research will improve our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of CTL-mediated cancer cell death and potentially reveal novel targets to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

T-cell-mediated proinflammatory cell death and lysis in cancer

En av de vanligste, men minst studerte, utfordringene med å bli eldre er problemer med å kommunisere. Mange eldre sliter spesielt med pragmatiske ferdigheter, som å forstå undertekst, eller tilpasse det de sier til personen de snakker med. 

La oss si at en lege må gi en alvorlig beskjed til en pasient. For å gjøre det litt lettere å takle, bruker legen vagere språk, som "kanskje" i stedet for "sannsynligvis". Mens yngre voksne ofte tar hensyn til høflighetsstrategier i måten de tolker det som blir sagt på, har eldre ofte vanskelig for å forstå når noen snakker indirekte. Mange eldre voksne har vanskelig for å forstå ikke-bokstavelig språk og kan misforstå alvorlighetsgraden av diagnosen. Dette kan påvirke beslutningen deres om behandling, noe som kan føre til utilsiktede konsekvenser. 

Siden god kommunikasjon er viktig både i viktige medisinske samtaler og i hverdagen, er det viktig at vi finner ut hva som gjør at eldre kan ha vansker med å forstå og bli forstått. RESILIENCE skal hjelpe til med denne utfordringen ved å samle data om praktiske, kognitive og språklige ferdigheter hos voksne i alderen 18-90 år over tid. Dette vil gi oss en stor mengde data om pragmatiske, kognitive og språk ferdigheter og gjøre det tilgjengelig for forskning. Med denne dataen som grunnlag har vi følgende mål: 

• Forstå hvordan praktiske evner endrer seg generelt gjennom voksenlivet. 
• Finne ut hvilke mekanismer som påvirker pragmatiske evner på forskjellige tidspunkter i livet.
 • Utvikle en teoretisk modell som forklarer hvordan pragmatiske ferdigheter endrer seg med alderen.
 • Lage algoritmer som kan forutsi hvordan pragmatiske evner vil utvikle seg for enkeltpersoner i årene som kommer. 
• Utvikle og teste et verktøy som kan måle pragmatisk helse (både pragmatiske ferdigheter og deres underliggende mekanismer), noe som kan åpne  for å iverksette tiltak. 

Dette vil gi oss muligheten til å forstå bedre hvordan folk kan utvikle pragmatisk resiliens gjennom livsløpet.

A cornerstone of human communication is our reliance on pragmatic skills to guide linguistic interactions (e.g., reasoning about others' mental states to bridge the gap between what is said and intended in conversation). However these skills are highly sensitive to age-related decline, leading to miscommunication and uninformed decision making in the older adult population. This raises an important question, one which has puzzled linguistics and psychologists for decades: if pragmatic competence is fundamental to communication, why do individuals vary so much in this capacity? 

Traditionally, psychologists have approached pragmatic competence from a cognitive angle, reasoning that individual differences in executive functions (i.e., the cognitive skills associated with goal-directed actions) are what underlie effective pragmatic behavior. In a similar vein, language scientists have taken a linguistic approach, reasoning that one’s language background (e.g., the frequency with which individuals shift between languages) shapes pragmatic skills by enhancing sensitivity to the communicative context. This focus on either cognitive or linguistic influences has resulted in two expansive yet disparate areas of research.

RESILIENCE will unite these disciplines to pursue a longstanding debate on what underlies pragmatic resilience and decline using a large-scale, interdisciplinary and longitudinal approach. By gathering data on adults' (ages 18-90) pragmatic, cognitive and language skills over multiple time points, we will develop a comprehensive theoretical model that explains how cognitive and linguistic systems interact to shape pragmatic competence as we age, and create algorithms that predict the trajectory of an individual’s pragmatic abilities in upcoming years. Based on these results we will design a multidimensional tool that detects the earliest signs of pragmatic deficits, leading to future interventions, allowing us to uncover the paths to pragmatic resilience.

Uncovering the paths to pragmatic resilience

Noen av oss tåler stressende livshendelser godt. Andre derimot utvikler vedvarende fysiske og psykiske plager som følger av stress. Hvor godt vi håndterer stress avhenger av et komplekst samspill mellom miljøfaktorer, sosiale forhold, biologisk sårbarhet og indre motstandskraft. Forskning på stressreaksjonene til dyr og pasientgrupper som til vanlig lever under mye stress viser at en gruppe signalstoffer i kroppen som aktiverer det samme hjernesystemet som cannabis – endocannabinoidene – kan begrense styrken på stressreaksjoner og bidra til at man raskere kommer seg til hektene. I dette prosjektet skal vi undersøke hvordan mestring av stress på kort og lang sikt henger sammen med nivåer av endocannabinoider i kroppen for å forstå hvorfor noen personer er mer motstandsdyktige mot stress enn andre. I den ene studien følger vi pasienter som skal gjennomgå en stressende, men veldig vanlig, situasjon: kirurgi. Her måler vi pasientenes opplevelse av stress, samt mentale og fysiske helse, fra tiden før til to år etter operasjonen og undersøker hvordan dette henger sammen med nivåene deres av endocannabinoider og andre stresshormoner. I den andre studien bruker vi data fra et eksperiment hvor deltakerne har blitt utsatt for psykososialt stress til å undersøke om endocannabinoidnivået deres påvirker hvordan de reagerer på stress, og om stresset i seg selv kan påvirke kroppens produksjon av endocannabinoider. Til syvende og sist er målet med studien å vurdere hvorvidt målinger av endocannabinoidnivåer kan brukes til å forebygge helseplager og til å evaluere behovet for økt oppfølging etter alvorlig stressende påkjenninger i livet.

In the face of major life stressors, some individuals cope well whereas others develop ill health and long-term adverse outcomes. Predicting who needs additional support in response to major life stressors is essential for targeted prevention and more efficient allocation of resources. The endocannabinoid system is emerging as a promising target for understanding vulnerability and resilience to stress. This system appears to buffer stress in two ways: by limiting the magnitude of the stress response, and by facilitating recovery after a stressful event. While the early findings are intriguing, they mainly stem from studies in rodents and small clinical groups with high stress burden. What role endocannabinoids have more globally for human resilience, health and well-being remains elusive. 

In this project we address this gap by leveraging comprehensive experimental and clinical data on two potent stress models: psychosocial stress and surgery. Drawing on these unique datasets, which combine experimental control with ecological validity, we will decipher how endocannabinoid levels influence people’s stress response and recovery across minutes, days, weeks and years. The project represents a novel directional shift for endocannabinoid research and will (i) determine the value of endocannabinoid levels as a biomarker to predict outcomes after surgery, (ii) quantify sex differences, (iii) assess endocannabinoid interplay with opioid analgesics, sex hormones and other stress markers (iv) spearhead open and reproducible science practices in endocannabinoid research, and (v) make this fine-grained and novel data available through an interactive web application. 

This project represents an ambitious effort to understand endocannabinoids’ role in stress resilience and will determine the value of endocannabinoids as a predictive biomarker and potential target for individualized treatment.

Deciphering endocannabinoid stress buffering in humans: 
Mechanistic and clinical investigations

Borderline Personality Disorder: Memory and Identity in Adolescence

BOLD MINDS aspires to enhance the understanding of vulnerability factors underlying the emergence of borderline personality disorder (BPD), with an ultimate aim of increasing the potential for young individuals to receive early, evidence-based help when their mental health is at risk. BOLD MINDS will achieve this by investigating whether disruptions in two aspects of autobiographical memory (AM), narrative identity (NI) and involuntary AM (IAM), are associated with BPD features and problem behaviours in adolescents concurrently and over time. In doing so, BOLD MINDS will strengthen the understanding of mechanisms underlying the emergence of BPD in adolescence and lay a groundwork for developing evidence-based early interventions for BPD. While currently limited, the study of AM in this field is essential for two reasons. Firstly, because the aspects of AM under investigation, NI and IAM, are known to be involved in identity formation and emotion regulation which represent two key psychological processes that are disrupted in adults with BPD and are linked to problem behaviours such as self-harm and suicidality. Secondly, because promising research is emerging on the use of AM targets in the treatment of emotional disorder in adults, and provides a strong model for future treatment development with vulnerable adolescents. In addition, this timely research program aligns with calls from international organizations to prioritize early interventions to promote adolescent mental health. BOLD MINDS will adopt and adapt state-of-the-art ecological momentary assessment and analytical techniques and work at the crossroads of clinical and cognitive psychological perspectives, allowing for a multidimensional approach to understanding BPD vulnerability. Training-through-research and formalized training of the experienced researcher will prepare her for a permanent academic position and the founding of her own research lab specializing in AM and early interventions for BPD.

Wheelchair users (WCU) are three to five times more inactive than the general population, leading to a high risk of developing preventable secondary conditions. Although physical activity (PA) guidelines have been specifically developed for WCU, we lack systematic approaches to implement them in practice, as well as valid algorithms to monitor PA change in WCU through sensor-based solutions. Accordingly, the overall scientific aim of the WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM) is to advance PA research and practice in WCU by developing valid digital markers for monitoring of and providing feedback on PA, paving the way for implementation and intervention. I will accomplish this through combining the complementary research fields of 1) behavioural intervention studies focusing on increasing PA in WCU (core competence University of British Columbia, UBC; outgoing phase) and 2) sensor-based PA monitoring (core competence Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU; returning phase – consolidated by non-academic placement at Maastricht Instruments, which develop research prototypes including PA monitors). WHAM’s scientific aim is achieved through three objectives: 1) Measure the effect of a pragmatic exercise intervention trial on self-reported physical activity levels and cardio-respiratory fitness, 2) Develop valid algorithms for tracking PA markers in WCU, and 3) Co-create a framework that outlines how PA can be conjointly monitored and provided feedback on in WCU. This fellowship will enable me to become established as an internationally recognized researcher in the field of “physical activity and disability”, while bringing together ongoing national disjointed research activities in this field. Altogether, my overall ambition is to contribute to reducing inequalities in daily-life participation among WCU compared to the rest of the population.

WHeelchair Activity Monitoring project (WHAM)

Per- og polyfluorerte stoffer (PFAS) er en stor gruppe menneskeskapte kjemikalier med høyt fluorinnhold som antas å ha negative helseeffekter. Kilder til PFAS kan være produksjon av vann-, varme- og flekkbestandige produkter og disse kjemikaliene er en del av hverdagen vår. PFAS påvirkning av biologiske systemer er ikke fullstendig forstått. Noen PFAS er antatt å øke risikoen for å utvikling av ikke-alkoholisk fettleversykdom (NAFLD) og øke risikoen for diabetes. 

For å forstå hvordan PFAS påvirker organene våre ønsker vi å bruke små laboratoriedyrkede organmodeller, kalt organoider. Disse miniatyrorganene kan dyrkes fra menneskelige stamceller og tilbyr et kontrollert miljø for å studere hvordan PFAS påvirker f.eks lever og bukspyttkjertelen vår, uten bruk av dyreforsøk.

For å studere helseeffekter må vi kunne måle nivået av biomolekyler som fettstoffer i leveren og hormoner i bukspyttkjertelen. Til dette trenger vi å utvikle analytiske verktøy for å måle effektene. Først vil vi bekrefte at når leverorganoidene eksponeres for enkelte PFAS-forbindelser utvikles det NAFLD-lignende sykdom ved å sammenligne den biokjemiske profilen (proteiner og metabolitter) til organoider av lever med PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Deretter vil vi utvide den analytiske verktøykassen for å undersøke hvilke metabolske veier som påvirkes, og om effekten er den samme i NAFLD-induserte og PFAS-eksponerte organoider. Vi vil også eksponere insulinproduserende bukspyttkjertelorganoider for PFAS for å undersøke effekten av PFAS på hormonproduksjon. Når effektene av PFAS-eksponering på lever- og bukspyttkjertel-organoider er etablert, vil organoidene bli samkultivert i en chip, og effektene av PFAS-eksponering vil bli undersøkt og sammenlignet med individuelle organoider.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are believed to contribute to metabolic diseases, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 1 diabetes. HE-POP aims to investigate the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS), a type of POPs), on organ function in a controlled environment.

Organoids are multicellular laboratory-grown miniature organs, that are grown from stem cells. HE-POP will use organoids to examine how PFAS affects our organs and develop cutting-edge bioanalytical tools and methodology to measure these effects using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. HE-POP hypothesizes that PFAS negatively affects organ function, as evidenced by changes in hormone and lipid levels characteristic of NAFLD and type 1 diabetes. 

Organoids offer a controlled environment to study the effects of PFAS on the liver and pancreas, without the use of animal models. HE-POP aims to gain evidence of the negative effects of PFAS on organ function through controlled experiments on organoids and aid in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying NAFLD and type 1 diabetes.

HE-POP has fundaments in UN sustainable development goals, specifically #3, #12, and #14/15, seeking an understanding of diseases with worldwide prevalence, and understanding how POPs affect our life and surroundings and help enable the right regulatory actions and replacement chemicals.

HE-POP: Studying the Health Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Using Mass Spectrometry, Organoids, and Organ-On-A-Chip

Dette prosjektet, kalt Hukommelse for musikk, fokuserer på det økende antallet mennesker over hele verden som lever med demens, spesielt Alzheimer's sykdom (AD). AD starter typisk med hukommelsesproblemer og påvirker etter hvert daglige aktiviteter. Aktive musikkintervensjoner, spesielt sang, har vist positive effekter på humør, atferd og livskvalitet for personer med demens, men deres innvirkning på kognisjon er ikke godt forstått. Prosjektet har som mål å fylle dette kunnskapsgapet ved å studere effektene av å lære nye sanger på kognitiv, atferdsmessig og hjernemessig funksjon.

Studien vil omfatte hjemmeboende voksne over 65 år med AD fra Argentina, Østerrike og Norge. Deltakerne vil gjennomgå 5 måneder med intensiv musikalsk opplæring (to ganger i uken) og 5 måneder med minimal opplæring (en gang i måneden) i tilfeldig rekkefølge, med en to måneders pause imellom. Intervensjonene inkluderer å lære nye sanger med en personlig musikklærer. Generell kognisjon vil bli målt ved bruk av Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive (ADAS-cog), og hukommelse for musikk vil bli vurdert gjennom ulike metoder, inkludert atferdsoppgaver og hjerneaktivitet (EEG). Humør vil også bli evaluert i hver økt.

Målet er å inkludere 113 deltakere for å sikre pålitelig påvisning av meningsfulle effekter. Studien vil utforske hvordan humør og hukommelse for musikk bidrar til endringer i kognitive evner, og om disse effektene varierer basert på faktorer som kjønn, alder, AD-stadium, eller tidligere musikalsk opplæring og generell utdanning. Prosjektet vektlegger samarbeid mellom forskere, tjenesteytere og brukere for å sikre studiens relevans og anvendelighet.

The number of people living with dementia is increasing and is high in low, middle, and high-income countries. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, manifests itself initially with cognitive impairment in memory domains, and later affects all activities of daily living. Active music interventions, particularly singing, can help to improve mood, behaviour problems, and quality of life. Too little is known about their effects on cognition, although some promising studies exist. The M4M project aims to fill this gap by measuring effects of learning new songs on clinical, behavioural and brain functioning. Specifically, M4M aims to examine changes in general cognitive functioning and memory for music in non-musician adults with AD undergoing intensive individual musical training based on singing novel songs, compared to minimal training.
        Home-dwelling adults with AD, 65 years or older, in 3 countries (Argentina, Austria, Norway), will receive 5 months of intensive intervention (2x/week) and 5 months of minimal intervention (1x/month), in random order, with a 2-month break in between. Interventions will entail learning new songs with an individual music teacher. At the end of each intervention period, general cognition will be measured with the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale – Cognitive (ADAS-cog) by a person who is unaware of the intervention received. Memory for music will be tested with observations, behavioural tasks, and brain responses (EEG). Mood will be assessed in each session. We aim to include 113 participants; this will help us to reliably detect clinically meaningful effects. We will also examine how mood and memory for music lead to changes in cognitive abilities, and whether effects depend on sex, age, AD stage, or previous musical training or general education. M4M will be conducted in close collaboration between academic researchers, service providers, and service users to ensure relevance and applicability.

Memory for Music: Effects of individual intensive musical training based on singing in non-musicians with Alzheimer’s disease

Rundt 7% av norske 4-åringer har så store psykiske vansker at de kvalifiserer for en diagnose, men det tar ofte lang tid fra vanskene oppstår, til de blir oppdaget og barna får rett hjelp. Myndighetene har derfor lagt tydelige føringer for at de som jobber med barn, må vite hva de skal se etter og hvordan de skal gå frem for at barna skal få den hjelpen de trenger. I Norge går over 95% av barna i barnehage hvor pedagogene blir godt kjent med barna over tid i deres naturlige miljø og har utviklingssamtaler med de foresatte 1-2 ganger i året. Barnehagen skulle derfor være en ideell arena for tidlig oppdagelse av psykiske vansker. Det har imidlertid ikke vært tilgjengelig noen tilpasset metode for de arbeidsformene og terminologi som er vanlig i barnehagene. Vi har derfor utviklet metoden Dialogbasert tidlig oppdagelse (DBTO) i nært samarbeid med pedagoger og foreldre i 8 ulike barnehager. Metoden går ut på å bruke utviklingssamtalen mer systematisk ved at både foreldre og barnehagelærer på forhånd fyller ut et spørreskjema om mulige bekymringer de har hatt for barnets utvikling og trivsel de siste månedene. I samtalen kan de så utforske og forsøke å enes om forståelsen av barnet og om det er behov for ytterligere vurdering eller andre tiltak. Tilbakemeldingene under utviklingen og tidlig utprøving tyder på at metoden fungerer godt og oppleves som et nyttig verktøy i foreldresamarbeidet. For å få tydeligere dokumentert kunnskap om hvordan DBTO fungerer i barnehagene, har vi utviklet forskningsprosjektet PRO-DIALOG. Vi ønsker med det å få kunnskap om (1) hvordan DBTO fungerer som et screening-instrument, (2) hvor brukervennlig den er, (3) hvordan den påvirker tidspunkt for igangsetting av tiltak og (4) hvordan den påvirker utviklingen av den psykiske helsen til barna over tid. 12 barnehager er plukket tilfeldig ut til å gjennomføre metoden, mens 11 skal fungere som kontroller. Foresatte til rundt 300 barn som har tre år igjen av barnehagen, vil bli spurt om å delta.

There is an unambiguous call for early interventions at the municipal level for children at risk of developing mental health problems. However, there is a surprisingly absence of socially valid methods for detecting children in need of early support.
        The aim of the project is to establish the properties of such a novel method; Dialogue Based Early Detection (DBED). We will study its properties as a mental health screener, how well it is adapted in an ordinary kindergarten context, and whether it affects activation of interventions for mental health concerns and children’s future mental health.
        The novel aspect of DBED is the systematic assessment of the child’s development and well-being by the kindergarten teacher and his/her parents, and the subsequent dialogue that aims to explore and converge their understanding of the child and conclude whether there is a need for further assessment or supportive actions.
        Parents of approximately 300 children in 23 different kindergartens aged 2-3 years will be invited to participate for the three last years before school start and follow-up the next two years. The kindergartens will be randomized to an implementation group or a control group. Parents’ socio-demographic characteristics and data from parent-teacher meetings, initiated interventions, user satisfaction, parental stress, and child mental health will be collected biannually, as well as tape recordings from interviews about user experiences of parents and teachers.
        The most critical challenges of the project will be participation rate of the invited parents in addition to attrition due to the time pressures in a busy workday in the kindergartens, and willingness of the control parents to complete the repeated questionnaires. Appropriate measures are made to take those risks into account.

Promoting mental health in young children – a sustainable dialogue based approach in kindergartens (PRO-DIALOG)

InterNASH - An intercellular-pathway therapeutic for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Midlene fra MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling fordelt på år

Midlene fra MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling fordelt på fagområde

Chief Scientist

In the Nordsalt project, partners from the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) together with Germany have over the past years assessed the nature, diversity, extent and long-term changes of Nordic coastal marsh habitats, to evaluate their role in climate regulation and to assess their vulnerability and change in ecological structure and functions under future climate warming scenarios, local environmental pressures and management decisions. The goal of the project has been to assess the nature, diversity, extent and long-term changes of Nordic coastal marsh habitats, to evaluate their role in climate regulation (net greenhouse gas emissions and Blue Carbon storage) and to assess their vulnerability and change in ecological structure and functions under future climate warming scenarios, local environmental pressures and management decisions.
NordSalt has also assessed the relationships between plant community structure, biodiversity and carbon cycling to evaluate how the marsh habitats provide climate and coastal protection-related benefits to society i.e., ecosystem services. The project has had particular focus on carbon sequestration (so called Blue Carbon) and net greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and methane) in these ecosystems. Detailed field studies of marsh carbon pools and sequestration rates in grazed and ungrazed locations has taken place at five case study sites across the range of Nordic coastal marsh habitats, and greenhouse gas flux rates have been seasonally measured at three of the case study sites (Finland, Denmark and Germany). The interactions between marsh plant community biodiversity, soil microbial processes and temperature change for net carbon release and storage have also been tested experimentally in a common garden experiment at the University of Hamburg. NordSalt has also explored historical changes in the distribution of Nordic coastal marshes and associated changes in community biodiversity related to climatic and local pressures and management practices, including grazing, which dramatically affects the plant community. 
Moreover, NordSalt has evaluated the potential of management of Nordic coastal marshes as nature-based solutions (NbS) in a local, regional and global context. To provide the best basis for these considerations, a comprehensive range of climate and coastal protection-related ecosystem services (ES) of these habitats have been evaluated and discussed with relevant policy, management and local stakeholders. On this basis, NordSalt will in 2024 be able to inform through a policy brief about sustainable management practices under current and future climate settings. We base this on having first held 8 workshops in the case areas with different stakeholder groups, which allowed us to co-develop future scenarios with these around protection and sustainable use of coastal marsh landscapes. In 2023, we completed this work by developing decision support systems based on the workshops Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, and calibrated and validated these by stakeholders in separate case based online workshops in during the course of 2023. 
We also completed an academic peer reviewed article based on results from the large survey of 1000 respondents in each of the case areas in 2022 on the theme of climate and environment, and users' willingness to pay for protection of vulnerable habitats and what they consider more important of climate protection measures or nature protection measures where these differ. We used a panel method where near identical questions are asked two identically set up groups of respondents but where one set get questions that refer to costs associated with their value based statements. We developed the questionnaires in collaboration with the case area leaders and had them translated to the respective languages, and sent out using the company YouGov that has experience with these types of studies. This article is now under final review and is expected to be published in early 2024.
Finally, as part of the work in Nordsalt on communication and dissemination, we have also participated as observers at the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and its 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. Our role in the negotiations was to consider the maturity of blue carbon and carbon credit relative to these salt marshes in Nordic regions. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was the result of these negotiations, included several targets of relevance to Nordic salt marshes. The most specific is that of 30% protection of all land and sea areas globally, as well as a zero vision for area use in planning in municipalities. During 2023, this was followed up by nations, who will send in their national goals in a standardized format by fall 2024 in preparation for COP16 at the end of next year. A goal of NordSalt would be for salt marshes to be included in the national goals of respective member states of the project.

Globally salt marshes store over 50% of the coastal carbon (termed “blue carbon”, BC) and are responsible for 25-40% of the global oceanic carbon storage. Remarkably we know very little about BC storage, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss and ecosystem services in Nordic salt marshes under a changing climate. In NordSalt we will assess (1) changes in Nordic salt marsh habitat distribution, plant community biodiversity, (2) blue carbon (BC) sequestration, GHG emissions and coastal protection as ecosystem services as a function of plant community structure in relation to climate change and local anthropogenic and management pressures. We will combine results from regional and national analyses, case study site measurements and assessments, a long-term mesocosm warming experiment and to assess the current role of these habitats in climate related carbon dynamics as well as their vulnerability to climate change impacts. Most importantly, we will co-produce this knowledge in collaboration with stakeholders that are engaged throughout the project period – and enable the knowledge to be used post-project completion. In collaboration with practitioners and other stakeholders, we will assess the feasibility of and propose management practices for NordSalt habitats as Nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate change mitigation at different levels of governance. We will collaborate with and enable stakeholders to implement our findings into national, regional, European and global climate and habitat policy. Multi-Actor Labs will use qualitative and quantitative tools to support the co-creation exchanges between scientific experts, stakeholders, business entrepreneurs, sector- and administrative representatives. The consortium’s collective expertise, 100+ aggregate years in coastal ecology, biodiversity, climate change mitigation, dissemination and the science-policy-industry interface - providing a good platform for achieving these goals.

Climate Change Impacts and Biodiversity Interactions in Nordic Salt Marshes

De viktigste elementene for å oppnå suksess med å maksimere utvinning fra felt i produksjon med økt utvinningsmetoder (EOR) er modellering av injektivitet, kunnskap om gjenværende olje, ekstra olje mobilisering med de injiserte væsker, og skalering fra pore skala mekanismer til felt skala. Det overordnede mål er å oppnå pålitelige simuleringsmodeller på feltskala som dekker alle aspekter av strømning og vekselvirkninger mellom injeksjonsvæsker og reservoar fluid. Dette krever detaljert kunnskap om strømningsmekanismer på pore skale (mikrometer), kjerne skala (cm) og videre på simulering skala (10 til 100m). 
EOR prosesser som involverer kjemiske komponenter adderer kompleksitet til oppskaleringsproblemet. Disse utfordringene må håndteres bedre for å oppnå pålitelige simuleringsresultat og redusere risiko i prognoser av økt utvinningspotensialet. 
Hovedmålsettingen i dette prosjektet er å utvikle modeller som gir pålitelige prognoser for økt utvinningspotensialet ved EOR metoder.

The key aspects of successful progress in maximizing oil recovery by Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) are in modelling of injectivity, knowing remaining oil target in the reservoir, oil mobilization by the injected fluids, and upscale pore scale mechanistic effects to field scale. Ultimately, the overall goal is reliable simulation models at the full field scale, covering all aspects of flow and interactions of any mixture of native and non-native reservoir fluids. This does, however, require thorough understanding of the flow mechanisms at smaller scales, from pore (micrometer) to core (cm) and further to simulation grid cells (tens or hundreds of m).
Injectivity of non-Newtonian fluids like polymers is very complex and involves shear thickening near the injection well, and transition to shear thinning behavior further out in the reservoir. In addition, pre-shearing of polymer at the injection site, and non-equilibrium effects near the well influence properties of porous medium rheological properties. 
Quantifying remaining oil saturation is a challenge. Capillary trapped oil may be reasonably estimated, but the local by-passed (mobile) oil is more uncertain and still very important for EOR oil recovery potential.  
Upscaling from pore to core and field scale is a challenge even for waterflood in heterogeneous reservoirs. EOR processes involving chemical components add complexity to the upscaling problem. These problems need to be handled better in order to reduce risks in forecasting EOR potential and moving EOR into application for Norwegian oil fields.   
The strong interest both from oil companies and reservoir simulation service companies for this project is a firm confirmation that the knowledge needs addressed are the key bottlenecks and that the industry will be making use of the results obtained.

EOR upscaling - from lab to field

In order to fulfil the ambitious targets set for oil recovery on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) it is necessary to implement enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Most of the Norwegian fields are developed with water flooding and are therefore good  candidates for EOR. Linked polymer solutions (LPS) is an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method that improves microscopic sweep efficiency and reduce oil saturation by microscopic diversion. Field results from onshore fields in China show up to 20 % increase  in recovery and recent core flood studies performed at CIPR indicate a huge potential for NCS reservoirs. StatoilHydro is planning an injection test for LPS at the Heidrun field in 2010. In order to implement LPS on the NCS it necessary to improve our und erstanding of the underlying mechanism of microscopic diversion.

In this research project we will focus on improving the understanding of LPS mechanism by investigating the physico-chemical properties of LPS. In particular the influence of reservoir cond itions such as salinity and temperature and how changes in LPS properties can be mitigated by changes in the LPS formulation. The LPS system consists of a polymer and a crosslinker. The concentration of each component and the ratio between them will deter mine whether the reaction generates predominantly intra-molecular interactions giving free solvated polymer or coiled polymer particles or inter-molecular interactions forming polymer gels. The hypothesis for LPS mechanism require coiled polymer particles  to be formed and it is a key objective to determine boundary conditions or phase windows for coiled particles at various conditions. Additionally, the kinetics of the reaction will be determined as this is an important parameter for designing field imple mentation and topside residence times. The deliverables from this project will be an improved understanding of the LPS system which can optimise LPS flood performance and accelerate implementation.

Nanotechnology EOR - Formation of Linked Polymer Solutions at NCS conditions

Nye utvinningsmetoder har vært utviklet gjennom prosjektet. Lav salt vanninjeksjon har blitt kombinert med surfaktant for å dempe kapillaritet. Likeså har lav salt vann også blitt kombinert med polymer injeksjon. Hensikten er at polymer injeksjon akkumulerer olje i det porøse mediet (dannelse av oljebank) som bidrar til fasekontinuitet og høyere oljeproduksjon enn ved lav salt vann alene.

Det er hyggelig av ideene som er presentert gjennom publikasjoner har fanget interesse i oljeselskapene. Det kommer nå publikasjoner fra andre miljøer som følger våre ideer. 


Focused projects on EOR methods are necessary in order to achieve the high ambitions for reserve replacement and recovery factors that have been set for the NCS fields. The regained interest in these methods has generated an increasing demand to design an d implement EOR measures for specific oil fields. Investigating the potential for EOR by improved microscopic displacement efficiency requires that the basic mechanisms governing the processes are well understood, and can be included into predictive model ling tools. At present, this is not the case for many EOR methods.

Most of the Norwegian fields are developed with water flooding, and are therefore possible candidates for implementing water additives to enhance the recovery. This fact is also reflected  in the balance of the proposed research project, where waterflood improvement is the dominant part.  However, the focus on moving CO2 injection forward towards application is also an important national concern, and we think our approach could be a step i n this direction. The main tasks are directed against new and better methods for improving microscopic displacement. 

The application of EOR processes is prevented by among other the lack of possibilities to predict the gain for a specific oil reservoirs . This project focuses on describing the mechanisms involved and to upscale the EOR effect to the field scale.  Cost and logistic challenges has also limited the use of EOR in the North Sea. Therefore, the project introduces several new concepts that coul d move the pilot and field implementation forward. 

For an oil field on decline, the chase for quick solutions to increase oil recovery will always be the driving force. This project, on the other hand, will ensure that the increased knowledge will be tr ansformed into scientific results that can be made available and will be directly practically applicable for later oil field projects

Enhanced Oil Recovery methods - Moving Science into Applications

Norway - USA Petroleum Research Workshop

The increased oil price has lead to a new look at more cost intensive enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods especially for oil fields on decline. The reason is the large potential for increased tail production by chemical methods and miscible gas injection.  In the 80?s these methods were studied extensively, but during the low oil prices in the 90?s the interest and research on these EOR methods diminished. The discontinuity in EOR interest also reduced or stopped the research effort. Now that several opera tors have regained their interest in these methods, there is an increasing demand to design and implement EOR measures for specific oil fields. However, in order for these methods to achieve success, research into better understanding of the fundamental m echanisms of these processes is a necessary condition.

Investigating the potential for EOR by improved microscopic displacement efficiency requires that the basic mechanisms governing the processes are well understood, and can be included into predictive  modelling tools. At present, this is not the case for many EOR methods. In this project we will focus on chemical flooding, water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection, foam applications, microbial EOR (MEOR) and the injection of linked polymer solutions (LPS) . While the first two methods are aimed at improved microscopic displacement by low interfacial tension, the latter four are all techniques that may   improve microscopic displacement by local diversion of injected fluids. Despite the superficial differen ces between these techniques, we feel they would benefit from taking a unified fundamental approach to the pore scale mechanisms operating in each. 

In this project we will develop methods for improved performance prediction of EOR techniques for North S ea applications. More specifically, we target EOR methods aimed at obtaining increased microscopic displacement efficiency by lowering of residual oil and local pore-scale diversion of flow.

0 projects

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

EOR upscaling - from lab to field

Awarded: NOK 14.9 mill.

Project Period: 2017-2020

Location: Vestland

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

Nanotechnology EOR - Formation of Linked Polymer Solutions at NCS conditions

Awarded: NOK 4.2 mill.

Project Period: 2010-2014

Location: Vestland

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

Enhanced Oil Recovery methods - Moving Science into Applications

Awarded: NOK 14.0 mill.

Project Period: 2009-2014

Location: Vestland

PETROMAKS-Maksimal utnyttelse av petroleumsreserver

Norway - USA Petroleum Research Workshop

Awarded: NOK 49,999

Project Period: 2005-2005

Location: Vestland

PETROMAKS-Maksimal utnyttelse av petroleumsreserver

Enhanced Oil Recovery for Maximizing Tail Production

Awarded: NOK 16.0 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2008

Location: Vestland

SFF-Sentre for fremragende forskn

Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research, CIPR/Senter for integrert petroleumsforskning

Awarded: NOK 140.0 mill.

Project Period: 2003-2013

Location: Vestland