Secretariat and regional coordinators

As a knowledge cluster, Polyfon is mainly about its participants and how academia, services and lived experience expertise work together. The secretariat supports this collaboration by developing and running shared functions. Regional academic coordinators support and encourage academic activity in the hubs in the south, east and west.

The secretariat

The secretariat has an academic leader/cluster leader (50% position), an administrative coordinator (60% position) and an involvement coordinator (20% position). A volunteer adviser also works with the secretariat.

The secretariat's tasks

  • coordinating the cluster collaboration
  • preparing items for the steering group and annual meeting
  • following up working groups, the Lived Experience Panel and the academic council
  • announcing calls for different types of seed funding and collaboration funding
  • organizing seminars, webinars and conferences
  • providing information and documentation, and communicating the cluster's work

Regional hubs

Polyfon’s regional hubs are located in Kristiansand, Oslo, and Bergen. Ansgar University College is responsible for coordinating collaboration in Southern Norway, Norwegian Academy of Music in Eastern Norway, and the University of Bergen in Western Norway. Each of these institutions has allocated a 20% position to a regional coordinator.

A regional hub focuses on developing services and initiatives in music therapy and related practices, supported by research, user involvement, and capacity building. The hubs contribute to the national scaling up of music therapy, helping to make music as a health resource accessible to more people who need and wish to benefit from it. The OPPTAKT Project makes this possible.

Responsibilities of the regional coordinators

The regional coordinators are responsible for:

  • stimulating user involvement, professional development, service development, and collaboration within their region
  • providing advice and guidance to cluster participants in the region as needed
  • disseminating knowledge and organising seminars and other meeting places for academia, services, and service users
  • participating in national coordination and collaboration within Polyfon

Contact

Secretariat

A collage of four portrait photographs showing the members of the Polyfon secretariat.
Photo: Private. From the left: Brynjulf Stige, Liv Gunnhild Qvale, Tora Söderström Gaden, Nina Bolstad.
  • Brynjulf Stige, Professor and Head of the Polyfon Knowledge Cluster for Music Therapy, Grieg Academy, University of Bergen.
    Phone: +47 971 69 746
    Email: brynjulf.stige@uib.no
  • Liv Gunnhild Qvale, Senior Executive Officer, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen.
    Phone: +47 55 58 73 68 / +47 404 72 281
    Email: liv.qvale@uib.no
  • Tora Söderström Gaden, Coordinator for Involvement, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen.
    Email: tora.soderstrom.gaden@uib.no
  • Nina Bolstad, Adviser (volunteer contributor) for Polyfon, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen.
    Phone: +47 409 03 808
    Email: Nina.Bolstad@uib.no

 

Regional coordinators

A collage of three portrait photographs showing the regional coordinators.
Photo: Private. From the left: Marie Strand Skånland, Hans Petter Pauli Solli, Kaja Elise Åslid Enge.
  • Marie Strand Skånland, Regional Academic Coordinator for the Southern Norway Hub, Associate Professor at Ansgar University College.
    Email: skanland@ansgarskolen.no
  • Hans Petter Paulen Solli, Regional Academic Coordinator for the Eastern Norway Hub, Associate Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
    Email: hans.p.solli@nmh.no
  • Kaja Elise Åslid Enge, Regional Academic Coordinator for the Western Norway Hub, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Bergen.
    Email: Kaja.Enge@uib.no
Last updated: 07.10.2026