EUROPE
The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved formal guidance for EU member states on making research careers within Europe more attractive to help boost the number of talented researchers working in the EU.
There is concern that Europe risks losing its primacy as the world’s top destination for researchers, in and outside of academia, with a European Commission note stressing that China now accounts for 21.1% of the world’s 8.85 million researchers (as per UNESCO figures for 2021), just under the EU’s 23.5% share, but above the United States’ 16.2%.
A key problem, said the EU executive, was that since 2007, the number of researchers worldwide has risen by nearly 30%, but “there has not been a similar increase in the number of academic positions…” in Europe. Indeed, “only a tiny percentage of PhD graduates will find a job in the academic or public research sector,” forcing them to “look for employment outside these sectors”.
As a result, the Commission (in July) proposed a formal non-binding EU recommendation to its 27 member states, which pushes their governments to support researchers, whether they work in the public or private sectors. This was approved by the Council (one of the EU’s co-legislators) on 8 December.
One key element of the new guidance is that EU member states update categorisation of researchers, so that they “encompass the widest range of career options” promoting “inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary careers, entrepreneurship, and innovation”.
This includes: R1 (first stage researchers under supervision towards PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience); R2 (recognised researchers with a PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience, not yet able to develop their own research, attract funding or lead a research group); R3 (established PhD or equivalent researchers developing research, attracting funding or leading research groups); and R4 ( researchers recognised by peers as research field leaders). To help boost research career progressions, member states should use these references in “profiles in all vacancies specifically addressed to researchers”, said the recommendation.
For these vacancies to attract the best research talent, jobs should be well paid, secure and with good conditions, said the recommendation, which lays down detailed guidance to deliver on these goals. It involves upgrading the EU’s Charter for Researchers, which will replace a 2005 Charter and Code for Researchers, “and will support the provision of good working conditions”, said an EU Council note.
Specifically, the recommendation advises governments to ensure “improving working conditions [for researchers], ensuring a work-life balance, and countering precarity, including by limiting fixed-term contracts and fostering more sustainable funding mechanisms for research organisations…”
It says member states should promote “adequate social protection measures” for researchers, “with a particular focus on early-career researchers”. And it says governments should facilitate the movement of researchers between employers, “fostering inter-sectoral mobility and a real flow of talents among sectors by equipping researchers with transversal skills, in addition to strong research skills…”
It added that governments should also combat “persisting inequalities in research careers (e.g. based on gender, age, ethnic, national or social origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, language, disability, political opinion, social or economic condition)…”
The text will now be debated by the European Parliament, which will also need to approve the recommendation for it to become (non-binding) law across the EU, although approval is not expected to be withheld.