The European Commission adopted in March 2005 a European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct
for the Recruitment of Researchers. As part of the EU's policy to
increase the attractiveness of research careers, the Charter and Code of
Conduct aim to give equal rights and obligations to individual
researchers throughout Europe, therefore improving mobility and working
conditions as well as reinforcing research and development across
Europe.
Represented by EUA, Europe's universities are key partners in the
follow-up debate on the European Commission's recommendations contained
within the Charter and Code of Conduct. This is essential because of the
dual perspective of universities as both employers with a
responsibility for the professional development of researchers' careers,
and as "competitive environments" which must create the conditions to
attract researchers and further their ability to build research
collaboration and networks.
EUA considers that the link between research training and career
development is crucial to strengthening Europe's research capacity
across universities as well as industrial and service sectors and has
therefore developed several
projects on these topics. EUA chaired a workshop on the funding of
doctoral programmes and doctoral candidates at the conference 'A Researchers Labour Market - a Pole of Attraction'
on 1-2 June 2006 in Vienna. This conference explored to which extent
the Charter and the Code are a driving force for enhancing career
prospects. The final report
of the Vienna conference is also available on
this website.
The researchers Mobility Portal