FCT and INESC TEC, together with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), promoted a European workshop within the framework of Action 4 of the ERA Policy Agenda – focusing on the existing set of measures and instruments to support the necessary cultural and institutional changes. During said workshop, and for the first time, the EC announced calls for research careers across Europe under Horizon Europe’s WIDERA programme.
The call – Talent Ecosystems for Attractive Early Careers – is a €20M pilot that aims to support organisational changes and coordinate measures in academic and non-academic organisations, towards creating a talent ecosystem with a wide range of R&D-related positions and providing cross-sectoral career opportunities for R&D talent.
The facilities of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto welcomed heads of institutions, research executors, researchers, managers, HR management experts, and representatives of said Action 4, towards providing information on existing and planned measures in the new European Framework. The opening session featured João Claro, Chairman of the Board of Directors of INESC TEC, Jaime Cardoso (also from INESC TEC and Vice-Chairman of the Scientific Council of FEUP), Manuel Aleixo, Head of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I), Madalena Alves, President of FCT and Luísa Henriques (FCT) – who acted as host.
307 representatives from universities, ministries, research institutions, the European Commission and European associations representing 17 Member States, two countries associated with Horizon Europe and two third countries attended this workshop – the third organised in Portugal on the European Framework for Research Careers, since the beginning of 2023. The national participation covered the entire national territory, with a wide variety of institutions.
There were four sessions, leading to suggestions for future actions, and a series of main conclusions.
The European Framework for Scientific Careers
The first session, on the European Framework for Scientific Careers, included a general presentation of the Framework approved by the European Commission; it featured Eugénio Campos Ferreira, Vice-Dean of the University of Minho, and testimonies by Dario Capezzuto, Policy Officer at DG R&I, and Luísa Henriques; it also featured a moment to share experiences in the adoption of the new Framework by the Member States, moderated by João Claro. Data from 2022 shows that there are two million researchers in Europe – 57% in the business sector, 32% in academia and 10% working for government entities -, an increase of 45% compared to 2012, and representing 1% of the total European workforce.
Given this current context of fierce and global competition for talent, the first session focused on the main European measure to address this question, by making research careers in Europe more attractive and sustainable. The EU Council Recommendation adopted in December 2023 with the new European Framework for Research Careers (although without legal force), focuses significantly on political matters, considering the work of the European Commission – namely the Horizon Europe and the future 2028 Framework Programme – and on the Member States (with a significant impact on how they design initiatives in terms of research careers across Europe).
One of the main messages of the session was that the successful operationalisation of the new Framework – considering its scope – depends on the collective action of all relevant actors, since the implementation will lead to cultural and institutional changes that, given their structural nature, require time to be carried out. The presentation of the examples of Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium showed the diversity of approaches and results already achieved, namely in terms of reducing precarious jobs, structuring careers and new approaches to evaluating researchers.
HR Excellence in Research
The second session featured the presentation of the Human Resources Strategy for Research (HRS4R) and due implementation tool – HR Excellence in Research; it welcomed top representatives from several European research Centres (including the Portuguese i3s), who shared their experiences regarding this scientific assessment tool. This process is voluntary and intelligent, in terms of certification, with specific features that are fundamental to allow quality validation.
The European Commission’s recommendations focus on four thematic areas: working conditions and social security, hiring, training and career development, and ethical and professional aspects. In 2023, 114 organisations applied to HRS4 – an increase of 80% compared to 2022, with only eight entities in Portugal.
The session highlighted, in a very positive way, the importance of both the European Framework for Careers and the new Researchers’ Charter targeting the entire research and innovation system, i.e., involving both the public and private and non-profit sectors, as well as the whole subjects’ range. The cases presented by the Politecnico de Torino (Italy), the University of Galway (Ireland) and I3S (the University of Porto) demonstrated the impact of said process on their organisations: not only as a learning mechanism, but also as a crucial path to a better quality of human resource management – both for researchers and those who carry out research support activities, e.g., management, technical and technological support, who generally do not have specific careers.
The official presentation of the pilot Talent Ecosystems for Attractive Early Research Careers
The third session was essentially dedicated to the presentation of the new pilot Talent Ecosystems for Attractive Early Careers call to promote research careers and a balanced mobility of talent through the European Research Area; it also explored current talent support tools within the Horizon Europe, like ERA Talents, MSCA Calls and COST Action calls.
The closing session and the main conclusions
The fourth session, led by Ricardo Migueis, Head of INESC Brussels Hub, explored and consolidated the sharing of experiences throughout the day, focusing on potential future paths. Several suggestions emerged from this session: greater knowledge about new funding models to support research careers – namely to close the gap that separates the different geographical levels of the local and national information levels; a proposal for greater involvement of researchers; a discussion on the instruments vital to the future framework programme to support the development of research careers.
The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.
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