We will discuss whether the HR Excellence in Research Award may be a tool to capture researcher’s interest in EUGLOH in respect to international scientific collaboration and experience being part of the assessment criteria when evaluating a research career.
Basically we will study how the HR Excellence in Research Award is created by the EU to support research institutions in organizing their HR policies to make the institution attractive to researchers looking for a new employer or for a host for their research project.
To obtain this award, the organization must organise their HR policy to follow the 40 principles in the EU’s Charter&Code which regulates the HR areas ethics, fair and transparent recruitment, working conditions and career development for researchers.
This is a process over time, at which The European Commission recognises with the 'HR Excellence in Research Award' the institutions which make progress in the Charter & Code, based on a customized action plan/HR strategy.
Among the 9 universities collaborating in EUGLOH, 3 of 9 are in this process:
EUGLOH partner
HR Excellence in Research award (year)
UiT The Arctic University of Norway - Yes (2012
Lund University - Yes (2020)
University of Hamburg - No
Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich - No
Alcalá University - No
University of Porto - No
University of Paris-Saclay - No
University of Novi Sad - Yes (2017)
University of Szeged -No
In the process, the institutions must renew HR action plans in distinct phases and send a specified set of documents to the EU commission. In the renewal phase that UiT is in, we presented the last set of documents July 14 2024, and will know the result late autumn 2024.
Description of the process at UiT related to EU’s HR Strategy for Researchers, HRS4R:
As a part of revising EU’s EURAXESS programme for EU’s Charter & Code, UiT in the beginning of 2024 sent a survey to all researchers at UiT and followed up the quantitative questions with qualitative focus group interviews to examine the working conditions for researchers at UiT. Based on the findings UiT sent documents describing HR-actions for researchers to the EU commission in July 2024.
In the UiT surveys, international experience and networks showed to be recognised as values in the employment process but does not appear in the established structure for career plans. The surveys and the process evaluating the HR situation showed to be a good way of presenting the need of actions for strengthening the areas of international recognition as improvements to already existing programmes and regulations. First and foremost, the survey reflects the importance of having vital information also presented in English.
Which practices do we see in the partner institutions?
In this workshop UiT will contribute by showing our process, our findings and solutions, and invite the other EUGLOH partner universities to share best practises. We look forward to a debate, and suggest an angle with:
The work with the Charter for Researchers challenges both structure and culture regarding to that it opens to several different aspects of mobility with associated merit-based assessment criteria. This means, among other things, that we must create new assessment criteria for both recruitment and career development, and it requires a more comprehensive onboarding system.
Which topics will be affected by increased mobility at your institution and what structural and cultural challenges will it cause?