Charter and Code
The European Commission has adopted a European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. These two documents, addressed to researchers as well as to employers and funders in both the public and private sectors, are key elements in the European Union's policy to make research an attractive career, which is a vital feature of its strategy to stimulate economic and employment growth.
The European Charter for Researchers is a set of general principles and requirements which specifies the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers as well as of employers and/or funders of researchers. The aim of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development, and to the career development of researchers. The Charter also recognizes the value of all forms of mobility as a means for enhancing the professional development of researchers.
50 UK Universities have been awarded the European Commission’s ‘Badge of Excellence’ for human resources and a list of them can be found here. The badge indicates that the universities are aligned to the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their recruitment. In the UK this process incorporates both the ‘QAA Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes’ and the ‘Concordat to Support the Career Development 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.
Find out more about the Charter and Code on the EURAXESS Rights web pages
In the UK, the Charter and Code are implemented through the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
To find out more about this, and other policy initiatives in the UK to support researchers, visit the Vitae website.
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