Group including university associations calls for improved careers and working conditions
A manifesto developed to support early career researchers in Europe is being circulated for broad endorsement, having already been backed by groups including the European University Association.
Initiated by former European Research Council president Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and former Portugal research minister Manuel Heitor, the manifesto calls for support measures including increased cooperation between national and EU-level research programmes.
“We must motivate and support the next generation to engage in research, to build and consolidate our continent’s future, our capacity to rise up to the challenges, promote peace and live in a healthy world,” said the Initiative for Science in Europe—one of the organisations that drafted the manifesto.
The manifesto says that greater recognition of the importance of research and of good working conditions for researchers is needed across Europe, with a particular focus on early career researchers who have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It says increased investment in R&D and in attracting younger students to research careers is needed across Europe, and calls for a debate on how such careers can be improved.
Europe should also better monitor researchers’ career development and mobility, improve research assessment and develop a pan-European research job market, the manifesto says.
It adds that funders, universities and other research organisations should enforce the principles defined in a new EU-backed agreement on reforming research assessment.
Other signatories to the manifesto so far include the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers, the Marie Curie Alumni Association and the League of European Research Universities.