Bjerkvig has acted as a vice chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology as well as chairman of the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen.
He is on the editorial board on several international journals and is sitting in several national as well as international funding committees for cancer in Europe.
His main interests are studies on cancer initiation and progression. His current research focuses on mechanisms of tumor angioegenesis and on finding combinatorial treatment principles that will affect metabolism and angiogenesis in brain tumors.
He has received major grants from the Norwegian Research Council, The Norwegian Cancer Society, Helse-Vest and the European Commission.