European Charter and Code for Researchers

The “European Charter and Code for Researchers” is a basic document containing general principles and requirements for researchers, aimed at driving European institutions toward the development of the European Research Area and an open and transparent job market. More than 1000 European institutions have already endorsed this Code.

The endorsement of the Charter has not resulted, in the short term, in any evident actions by the institutions. For this reason, the European Commission has created a new tool designed to support the implementation of the C&C by the individual institutions: the “Human Resources Strategy for Researchers Incorporating the Charter & Code”.

This approach involves five fundamental steps:

  • Internal analysis;
  • Action plan;
  • Evaluation and acknowledgement of the analysis and the AP by the European Commission, awarding the “HR Excellence in Research” logo to the institution;
  • Internal evaluation after 2 years;
  • External evaluation by the European Commission after 4 years.

In May 2013, the IEMEST appointed an internal commission for the internal analysis, focusing on the following aspects:

Ethical and professional responsibility of researchers;
Recruitment;
Working conditions;
Research career training and development.
The members of this internal commission are:
Claudia Campanella (Anatomist), Leader
Giosuè Lo Bosco (Computer scientist), Antonella Marino Gammazza (Biologist), Stefano Ruggieri (Psychologist) and Fedele Termini (Psychologist).

Between June 2013 and March 2014, an internal analysis was carried out through a questionnaire administered to researchers, aimed at identifying the major issues with the implementation of the Charter and Code. The results can be found here: “IEMEST ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONNAIRE” (ANNEX 1; ANNEX 2).

As suggested by the “Human Resources Strategy”, an Action Plan was formulated on the basis of these results, and successively evaluated by the European Commission’s Assessors. The response was as follows: “the Assessors were impressed with the overall quality of IEMEST’s submission and the care taken to align HR practices with those of the Charter and Code”. Moreover, the Assessors stated that: “It is good to see that the working environment provided by IEMEST satisfies its researchers with a high rate of agreement. The HR badge acknowledgement is likely to help IEMEST standing as a reference working place for researchers in its research domain”. The Assessors suggested only minor revisions to the proposed Action plan, that you can find here in the final version. Hence, the IEMEST has been awarded the “HR excellence in Research” logo by the European Commission as a result of the implementation of the first two steps by the Institute.

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