Background

By improving the conditions for free research, promoting an open labour market for researchers, and enabling recruitment and retaining outstanding researchers, a strong European Research Area can be established and with it an attractive, sustainable and attractive labour market for researchers.

The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specify the roles, responsibilities, and entitlements of researchers as well as of employers and/or funders of researchers. The code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers consists of a set of general principles and requirements that should be followed by employers and/or funders when appointing or recruiting researchers.

Human Resource Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) is a strategy for implementing the Charter and Code, in order to be certified with HR Excellence in Research.  

Process at The University of Borås

In October 2018, former Vice-Chancellor Björn Brorström made a formal decision stating that the University of Borås was to apply for the HR Excellence in Research Award. In connection to this, the Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Council was selected as the steering committee and a project group was assembled, responsible for coordinating the project and the application. During 2019-2020, the project group worked on writing the application and identifying development areas and during early 2020 reference groups were involved in the project. The final application was submitted to EURAXESS on 15 December 2020 and in May 2021 EURAXESS decided to approve University of Borås application, which gives the university the right to use the "HR Excellence in Research" award. The award means that the university has been evaluated and approved by the EU Commission for implementation of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

During 2021-2023 activities in the action plan have been implemented as part of the university's ordinary development and quality assurance work. In May 2023, an interim assessment was handed in to the European Commission. The implementation work was coordinated from the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Office.

Feedback and Questions

In all phases the project requires involvement of a broad range of researchers as well as administrative staff and management, and the opportunity to give feedback. So far this has been carried out in different ways, including workshops with the reference groups with staff selected by Dean of Faculties and Head of Professional Services. Another possibility was to give feedback through an online form.

Documents and Decisions

The progress of the project is possible to follow by accessing the decisions and documents produced, and these are available at Documents and Decisions.