COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. Brussels, 14 August /07 RECH 221

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1 COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 14 August /07 RECH 221 COVER NOTE from: Secretary-General of the European Commission, signed by Mr Jordi AYET PUIGARNAU, Director date of receipt: 8 August 2007 to: Mr Javier SOLANA, Secretary-General/High Representative Subject: COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Mobility of Researchers and Career Development Implementation Report 2006 Delegations will find attached Commission document SEC(2007) Encl.: SEC(2007) /07 TB/ep 1 DG C II EN

2 COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, SEC(2007) 1074 COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Mobility of Researchers and Career Development Implementation Report 2006 EN EN

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary Introduction and general policy context Europe of knowledge: a more transparent, attractive, open and efficient researchers' labour market: major achievements in A more transparent labour market The European Researchers' Mobility Portal At European level: At national level Prospects ERA-MORE : the European network of mobility centres Activities undertaken by the network at national and European level Other Community initiatives in the field of information and assistance Prospects Awareness-raising activities At EU level At national level Prospects Studies/statistics At EU level At national level Prospects: A more attractive labour market Charter & Code At EU Level At national level Prospects Social security & taxation At EU level At national level...27 EN 2 EN

4 Prospects Doctorate holders At EU level At national level Prospects A more open labour market Visa package At EU level and national level Prospects ERA-Link At EU level At national level Prospects A more efficient labour market Marie Curie Actions At EU level At national level: Prospects Intersectoral mobility At EU level At national level Prospects...42 Conclusions...42 EN 3 EN

5 Executive summary The Competitiveness Council recently 1 reiterated "the vital importance of excellent human resources and the fostering of "brain circulation for successful RTD and innovation", calling on Member States to "put in place all the necessary conditions for a single, open and competitive European labour market for researchers". Even at the time of the launch of the Lisbon Strategy, which stressed the need to create a European Research Area (ERA), the availability of scientific personnel was mentioned as a key challenge 2. Since then, the need for such personnel has increased dramatically, notably with the endorsement by the Barcelona European Council of the objective of investing an average of 3% of GDP in research 3, and under the pressure of such factors as the progressive ageing of European researchers and the worldwide growth in scientific and technological competition. In 2001, in the Communication "A mobility strategy for the European Research Area" 4, the Commission defined a set of measures aimed at creating a more favourable environment for the mobility of researchers in the ERA, with a view to attracting and keeping young talent and promoting innovation. A second Communication adopted in "Researchers in the European Research Area: one profession, multiple careers" also proposed an action plan with a number of initiatives aimed at the emergence of a real labour market for researchers in Europe. A further 3% Action Plan 6 of the Commission also described the implications of this objective in terms of human resources policy. Following up the measures set out in these Communications and in the 3% Action Plan is a matter for the Steering Group Human Resources and Mobility (SG HRM), as an element of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) encouraged by the European Council of Lisbon for developing human resources in research. The aim of this fifth report is to take stock of the progress made in 2006 at national and European level in promoting researchers' mobility and career developments, as part of the follow-up of the Lisbon strategy. The main achievements in 2006 were as follows: - A number of developments took place in 2006 concerning the Recommendation on the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their Recruitment. The Commission co-organised the Austrian Presidency Conference on the "Charter & Code" held in Vienna in June 2006, which stressed the need for a transparent and effective process of implementing the Charter & Code principles. Though the process may still appear too slow, real progress has nonetheless been made, as more than 170 institutions representing over 650 institutions in 19 countries have now signed up to the Charter & Code. In line with the Competitiveness Council of 19 February 2007 Presidency Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council March 2000 Presidency Conclusions of the Barcelona European Council of March 2002 COM (2001) 331 final of COM (2003) 436 final of COM (2003) 226 final of EN 4 EN

6 outcome of the Conference, work on setting up a Charter & Code labelling mechanism continued in an ad hoc working group. There was strong support in Vienna for a "European Platform for Researchers", as an open forum bringing together researchers and stakeholders from industry, universities and the social partners, to give a "strong voice" to researchers. The platform could also help develop a genuine labour market for researchers. - The three European instruments a directive and two recommendations that constitute the "scientific visa" package aimed at facilitating administrative procedures for third country researchers entering the European Community were adopted in September and October The two recommendations immediately entered into force, while the deadline for transposition of the directive in the EU Member States concerned (i.e. all except United Kingdom and Denmark) is 12 October The two recommendations on long-term admission and short-term visa have not had yet a significant impact on administrative procedures. As regards the directive, the Commission gave its support to the EU countries through bilateral contacts and in multilateral fora (e.g. SG HRM meetings) to help interpret relevant legal provisions of this text, stressing the need for simple and quick entry procedures. At the end of 2006, the transposition process had started in most countries and had already been completed in some of them. - The European Researchers' Mobility Portal was revamped during the second part of the year and several of the main features (e.g. job vacancy search tool, references to the FP7 "People" programme, layout, FAQs) were improved. As a result, for instance, the number of curricula vitae posted on the portal and of job vacancies 1000 new jobs per month on an average increased, while the number of page views about per month on average continued to rise. At the same time, interoperability between the majority of the 31 national portals incorporated in the European portal was enhanced through such means as common URL and structures. - The ERA-MORE network, launched in 2004 and now comprising 200 Mobility Centres in 32 countries, complemented by numerous local contacts points, continued to provide tailormade assistance to mobile researchers and their families. According to the results of a first data collection, for the period September to December 2006, the ERA-MORE members assisted some researchers and answered some questions on topics ranging from legal issues to everyday life matters. With the Mobility Centres up and running, other activities, such as staff training, networking at national level, updating of the national portals, guides for researchers, promotion activities and cooperation with policy stakeholders, took a more prominent place. There were also strategic reviews on how to sustain the work of the Mobility Centres after the EC funding stops, as initially planned. - The most noteworthy aspect of the awareness-raising activities launched in 2006 was the "Researchers' Night", which took place in September on the basis of the 2005 experience. More than 100 towns from 21 countries were involved in this new series of successful events, with more than people taking part. - The ERA-Link initiative aims to network European researchers communities outside Europe, to keep them informed and enable them to interact, and to build synergies at EN 5 EN

7 European level with national activities with links to expatriate researchers with a view to promoting collaboration within the European research community and supporting "brain circulation". The ERA-Link initiative ( was officially launched in the USA in June 2006 by Commissioner Potočnik and made considerable progress during the year, enabling the project to enter a new phase of consolidation and expansion, with membership in the USA reaching and growing steadily. Resources have been identified within the "People" Programme of the 7 th Framework Programme, in order to give ERA-Link the support, tools and visibility needed for its full development in the USA, as well as to expand the concept to other countries and regions of the world. - The interest of stakeholders in Marie Curie Actions is evident from the high number of applications: some proposals were submitted in In 2006, a total of around 660 individuals benefited from intra-european (EIF), outgoing (OIF) and incoming international (IIF) fellowships. Beneficiaries considered the Marie Curie fellowship scheme to have had a significant impact in stimulating mobility: many of them would not have gone abroad had it not been for the fellowship. In addition, some 210 researchers who already benefited from a Marie Curie Fellowship have received Marie Curie Reintegration (ERG) and International Reintegration (IRG) fellowships to become professionally reintegrated within their country of origin or in another European Union country. Furthermore, in 2006, some 800 European research organisations received support under the Research Training Networks (RTNs) scheme to provide a platform for training for researchers recruited as part of a defined collaborative project. In addition in 2006, 30 Team leaders have been awarded with 4-year Marie Curie grants to work together with their newly recruited international teams in renowned host institutions. Similarly, 23 new Marie Curie Chairs holders have teaching positions at universities and research institutions. The additional 36 new contracts signed for Marie Curie conferences will allow a total 3245 events for approximately researchers over all FP6 to participate in events covering a broad range of scientific topics.regarding the Transfer of Knowledge Actions (TOK), 79 new contracts in place will facilitate the further development of research capacities and the establishment of durable industry-academia partnerships through exchange of research staff and recruitment of international experienced researchers. - Another important aspect of the activities undertaken in 2006 in relation to the mobility and the career development of researchers was the finalisation of a report on the "Mobility of Researchers between Academia and Industry: 12 Practical Recommendations". This report, produced by a set of four dedicated working groups of experts from the Member States and States associated with the RTD framework programme, is addressed to research organisations, universities, and private companies engaged in research, and to public authorities. It sets out recommendations for improving the mobility of researchers between academia and industry, as a means of enhancing a culture of longer-term, structured interaction and cooperation between both sectors in terms of knowledge transfer and the development of cross-sector skills and competence. Finally, the joint efforts of the Commission and the Member States in the course of the year, including information, coordination and exchange of good practices of the Steering Group Human Resources and Mobility, were further moves towards a more effective labour market for researchers. EN 6 EN

8 But it is clear that the need is for an essential qualitative step forward, associated with a real sense of urgency, if progress is to be made in coping with the evolving realities of the world: in the context of the relaunch of the ERA, of the Lisbon strategy, and by taking account of changes within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The consultation process launched on 1 May following the adoption 8 by the Commission of the Green Paper "The European Research Area: New Perspectives" can play a important catalytic role, by initiating a broad debate with all stakeholders, with the Steering Group, as an official player in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), being closely associated. 1. INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL POLICY CONTEXT Ensuring the timely availability of sufficient, highly trained, mobile and motivated scientific personnel moving in a single, open, efficient and attractive European researchers' labour market is a vital challenge for the European Union 9. The urgent need for an active and sustained policy at national and European levels has emerged increasingly over recent years from various analyses 10 which highlighted the handicaps of Europe, from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, with in particular: - the relatively weak position of Europe compared to outside countries as regards the number of researchers in relation to the overall workforce and particularly in Industry 11 ; - the declining interest of new generations in several basic scientific domains 12 due notably to the unattractiveness of research and career prospects, with the risk of a shortage in these fields; - the improvable level of representation of women among researchers at all career levels; - the ageing and foreseeeable retirement of a generation of researchers, with no prospect of complete replacement in many countries; - the increasing worldwide competition to train, attract and retain the best scientific talent; Until the 31 August 2007, at the following address: COM (2007) 161 of The European Council of Brussels of 8/9 March 2007 "underlines" "the vital importance of excellent human resources and the fostering of brain circulation" Report of the HLG chaired by M. José Mariano Gago "Increasing human resources for Science and technology in Europe (2004) presented at the EC Conference "Europe needs more scientists; Report of the High level Group chaired by Wim Kok "Facing the challenge -The Lisbon strategy for Growth and employment. The last figure emerging from the "Green paper the European Research Area: new perspectives" (April 2007) show that in spite of the efforts, the figure have not been really modified: "The number of researchers in full time equivalent (FTE) per thousand labour force amounted to 5.4 in the EU in 2003, compared to 10 and 9 in Japan and the US respectively and remains essentially unchanged since (even if the number of researchers per 1000 workforce in the EU has been growing at an average annual rate of 2.8% between 1997 and 2003). The deficit in the share of researchers of the workforce as compared to the US and Japan is mainly located in the business sector. Of the estimated total of 1,180,000 researchers (FTE) in the EU-25 in 2003, about 50% were employed in the business sector. This compared to some 68% in Japan and about 80% in the US such as mathematics and physics EN 7 EN

9 - the structural fragmentation of the European researchers labour market, which hinders the trans-national mobility of researchers within the EU, due in particular to cultural factors and the incompatibility of rules in such fields as social security, taxation and transferability of pension schemes; - the content of training, which could be broadened to facilitate intersectoral mobility. In this context, a Communication "A mobility strategy for the European Research Area" 13 was adopted in 2001 to improve the mobility of researchers and thus increase their training level, while improving knowledge transfer. A second step towards formulating corrective actions on human resources was the adoption in of the Communication "Researchers in the European Research Area: one profession, multiple careers", which proposed an action plan including a number of initiatives related in particular to researchers' recruitment, training, contractual status, evaluation, and career progression, with a view to creating a single labour market for researchers in Europe. At the same time, the 3% Action Plan 15 put forward by the Commission detailed the implications of the 3% objective for scientific human resources. Following up the measures set out in these Communications both endorsed by the Council 16 and in the 3% Action Plan is a matter for the Steering Group Human Resources and Mobility (SG HRM), composed of representatives of national Research Ministers. In 2006, the SG HRM met four times to discuss strategic topics and exchange information and good practices, and was enlarged to include Croatia. The current report covers the activities undertaken during 2006 at national and European levels to promote researchers' mobility, enhance their career profile and progress towards creating a European labour market for them in the ERA, as part of the Lisbon strategy. Information on national activities is based exclusively on input from the members of the SG HRM. Some provided really valuable inpu, while others sent either poor information or none at all. According to contributions from participating countries used in producing this report, the question of human resources is increasingly the subject of ongoing initiatives in participating countries, and regular progress is achieved. Nevertheless, any measures seem to be one-off rather than resulting from a real and comprehensive policy inspired by a common European vision, while the priority given to these matters does not always seem commensurate with the magnitude of the challenges to be met COM (2001) 331 final of COM (2003) 436 final of COM (2003) 226 final of Council Resolutions : OJ 2001/C 367/01 and OJ 2003/C 282/01 EN 8 EN

10 2. EUROPE OF KNOWLEDGE: A MORE TRANSPARENT, ATTRACTIVE, OPEN AND EFFICIENT RESEARCHERS' LABOUR MARKET: MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN A more transparent labour market The European Researchers' Mobility Portal The Portal, was launched in 2003 with the aim of improving access to information on fellowships, grants and vacancies throughout Europe, as well as on the entry conditions, access to employment, social security rights, taxation and the cultural aspects of a host country. As a shared initiative between the Commission and the participating countries, the European portal is complemented by a number of national mobility portals At European level: The Commission continued to emphasise the need for a higher degree of interoperability with national portals. The Portal was revamped in October 2006 and some of the main features (e.g. job vacancy search tool, integration of FP7/People reference, layout, FAQ sections etc.) were improved. As a result, an average of more than 1000 new job vacancies per month are currently on view on the portal, with a constant increase in the number of research organisations making use of this service. The number of posted curricula vitae an option offered to researchers is also increasing. So also are the numbers of page views, with an average of about per month. The integration of multilingual presentation was tackled, and the Portal was made available in almost all the EU official languages (the few missing ones will be finalised by mid-2007). With regard to the international dimension of the portal, collaboration has been established with Egypt and China, while Australia officially launched its national Researchers' Mobility Portal in October In order to further promote all the activities related to the portal and other career and mobility related initiatives, the Commission issues the Newsletter Europe4Researchers, which is published in electronic format and available through the European portal At national level To date, there are 31 national portals which are fully operational and integrated into the European portal 19. The full development of the respective national portals/web sources is essential for successful implementation of the Mobility Strategy at both national and European level. The majority have agreed to foster integration as regards a common URL (mentioning Eracareers) and the structure, content and possible exchange of data between the national portals and the European portal; others, however, have opted for a lower level of interoperability. Examples of developments at national level in 2006: Thirty-one national Researcher s Mobility Portals are already available: AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, DE, EL, HU, IS, IE, IL, IT, LT, LV, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, SK, SI, ES, SE, CH, TR, UK. ( EN 9 EN

11 AUSTRIA: The Researchers' Mobility Portal Austria (RMPA) has been updated on a regular basis, and more detailed information was incorporated, e.g. in the Grants Database and concerning practical information. In particular, the extension and updating of links and information on the RMPA is a steady process to guarantee the provision of the best data regarding all aspects of mobility. The section on research policies was extended and a new section for further information has been incorporated into the Researcher s Mobility Portal Austria, which sets out interesting information for mobile researchers. In addition, a summary of frequently asked questions is included within this information section. Mobile researchers can easily find information on obstacles they might be confronted with. Promoting the job opportunity tool at the pan-european Researchers' Mobility Portal at numerous events and mailing shots has enhanced publicity for this tool in the Austrian scientific community. BULGARIA: The National Research Mobility web-portal (RMP) on was redesigned during the reporting period in response to the remarks made by the EC on it and to make it more user-friendly. A Jobs database in Bulgarian was added to the previous services provided, based on the research job vacancies published regularly in the State Journal. It was also decided to include the Portal promotion day in several high-profile promotional events in the capital and at regional level. CZECH REPUBLIC: The national Mobility portal underwent crucial modifications in Foreign researchers who decide to work in the CR can find both practical information (entry conditions, taxes, health and social insurance) and information about grants, research projects and openings in state and private fields. The portal is updated and added to on a regular basis. Frequently asked questions and a questionnaire were added to evaluate the satisfaction of users. Also, August 2006 saw the launch of the Czech version of the national portal. Research institutions, enterprises and other institutions can submit free of charge details of their openings, and researchers looking for jobs can submit their data to the portal. ESTONIA: The Estonian Researchers' Mobility portal was maintained and updated continuously throughout In July 2006 the Estonian ERA-MORE network conducted a survey of national mobility portals with the aim of gathering good ideas and practices to improve the Estonian portal and to ascertain gaps and shortcomings in the portal content and structure. The five external evaluators rated the Estonian mobility portal as a good source of practical information. The study gave valuable feedback both in the form of concrete recommendations for improving the content of the Estonian portal, and some more general suggestions. The recommendations were taken up by the portal team and resulted in slight changes to the portal structure to make it more user-friendly, as well as through rewriting some of the chapters. GREECE: The main objective of the national mobility portal is to act as an effective information tool providing useful and tailored information to mobile researchers. The number of visits during the last two years (more than visitors, half of them from Greece and the rest from all over the world) proves its usefulness.useful information is provided to Greek researchers directing them to other countries within ERA, and to European or foreign researchers wishing to visit Greece. The Researchers' Mobility Portal serves also as an awareness mechanism to support national mobility policies (e.g. promotion of national programmes like ENTER, which provides for funding of research projects involving mobile EN 10 EN

12 researchers). It is also regarded as a promotional tool for research job opportunities in Greece and in Europe. IRELAND: A significant development of the Irish portal researchcareersireland.com involved the more complex technical development necessary to integrate the job opportunity search functionality with structured organisation data. This involved the implementation of the RJOE Research Job Opportunity Editor on EUROPA and the creation of an extranet to support these activities for both research and organisation users. Academic institutions, research agencies and organisations can now display their profile and advertise their research opportunities on the newly developed recruitment facility on the national research portal free of charge. These vacancies are automatically uploaded from the Irish portal into the European portal for Research Job Opportunities Editor on a weekly basis. An extranet has been developed to enable organisations to directly upload, amend and remove their vacancies. This has been an essential development for ERA-MORE Ireland and has resulted in a huge increase in users and organisations and visitors to the portal. A remarkable rise in research job applications for research active organisations within academia and industry has been recorded. This phase of development was jointly funded by the Irish Universities Association and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. LATVIA: The Latvian Researchers' Mobility Portal will operate in co-ordination with the European and other national mobility portals. The English version ( started in January 2005 as an information dissemination tool for potential foreign researchers arriving in Latvia (from ERA and third countries). The portal is maintained and updated constantly. During 2006, exhaustive topics about the Latvian national R&D policy, as well as the legislative and administrative system of higher education, science and R&D were added. The Latvian version ( started online on 18 December SWEDEN: The Swedish Mobility Portal has been transferred to the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems Prospects There is a constant need to monitor the quality of the information provided. This will require further development of the commonly agreed "quality culture" at both European and national levels. The Commission will continue to seek structured feedback on the quality, added value and necessary technical adjustments from the research community. Future developments include the extension of the international dimension (with reference to the "Scientific diasporas"). A revamping of the software enabling the publication of jobs off-line (the Research Job Opportunities Editor -RJOE-), is planned by EN 11 EN

13 ERA-MORE : the European network of mobility centres Activities undertaken by the network at national and European level Today about 200 Mobility Centres in 32 countries, complemented by numerous local contact points, form part of ERA-MORE and provide tailor-made assistance to researchers and their families before and during a mobility period in a European country. Besides their operational task of helping researchers and their families in all mobility-related matters, Mobility Centres are being more and more recognised as actors with expertise and knowledge in dealing with obstacles to the mobility of researchers. ERA-MORE has now reached a phase of stable operation. For the first time since its launch in 2004, network-wide statistics were gathered for the period September to December 2006 as a pilot exercise. According to these data ERA-MORE members assisted some researchers and answered some questions on various topics, ranging from legal issues to everyday life matters. The services of the Mobility Centres are thus heavily used by researchers and their families, indicating that ERA-MORE responds to a real need. In addition, feedback from researchers underlines that the Mobility Centres improve Europe's image as a welcoming area for researchers. The 30 co-funded national work programmes continue to be implemented, and some countries have already reached the final project stage. After the initial setting-up of the Mobility Centres, other activities, such as staff training, networking at national level, updating of the national portals, guides for researchers, promotion activities and cooperation with policy stakeholders will now take a more prominent place. Equally, evaluation of user feedback is becoming more and more important, in particular with a view to securing sustainable resources for ERA-MORE after the EC funding for the national setting-up activities ends. A series of networking activities, outlined in the 2006 Action plan, were organised by the Commission in order to increase cooperation between ERA-MORE staff and improve the overall performance of the network. The challenge for these European networking activities was to bring the national activities together and to add a European dimension to form a coherent and operational European network. Three meetings of the bridgehead organisations as the national coordinators were organised in 2006 with the objective of discussing strategic issues. The ambition of ERA-MORE is to ensure that a researcher receives the same quality of information in all 200 Mobility Centres in 32 countries. To this end, the quality working group, created in 2005, pursued its efforts towards achieving coherent services all over Europe. In the beginning of the year, the group disseminated preliminary results of its work in the publication "Quality working group 2005 Recommendation to network members", with suggestions for ERA-MORE staff on how to improve the quality of information and assistance provided by the Mobility Centres. The working group also prepared the above mentioned data collection exercise and put forward standard questions for qualitative evaluation. In addition, a screening of all national portals was performed, resulting in individual recommendations on how to enhance user-friendliness of the portals. Responding to the lack of theoretical knowledge in the field of evaluation, 25 ERA-MORE members were trained on evaluation issues in general and in the context of the work of a Mobility Centre. EN 12 EN

14 An internal communication platform, the ERA-MORE extranet, was launched in April 2006 with the objective of facilitating exchange and cooperation between members. It provides for a member database, thematic sections for the exchange of material, an event management facility, a discussion forum and a tool for collecting statistics. In March 2006 three hands-on training sessions were organised to enable ERA-MORE members to use the extranet efficiently. As a result, one "multiplier" per country was trained to transfer the acquired knowledge to other national network members. The extranet is used more and more by ERA- MORE staff and seen as a useful instrument for interaction with other members. As legal issues remain at the top of the agenda for the Mobility Centres, two workshops on this issue were organised in The first one in May, attended by 35 ERA-MORE members, focused on the "scientific visa" package and on social security and taxation. The second one in October, attended by 40 ERA-MORE members, dealt in addition with intellectual property rights, recognition of qualifications, double taxation agreements and provisions of the Marie Curie contracts. ERA-MORE has to serve the scientific community in a balanced way. While cooperation with academia seems to be straightforward thanks to the numerous Mobility Centres based in universities, only a few ERA-MORE members are specialised in serving industry's needs. As a follow-up to the first workshop, held in 2005 in the Netherlands on developing ways of serving industry, a second workshop was organised in May 2006 in Ireland, with the emphasis on exchanging good practice and material between ERA-MORE members. As a result of this event, a small working group prepared a publication "Industry Participation in ERA-MORE a collection of experiences" that disseminates experiences and hints to other network members. Despite efforts at national and European levels, ERA-MORE has not yet managed to make itself sufficiently known to the research community. Promotion and awareness raising are therefore crucial factors for success. A mailing shot of promotional material to all ERA- MORE members was organised so that they can use posters, leaflets, videos, visit cards and pens for their own activities. To enhance corporate identity, a new ERA-MORE slogan was created: ERA-MORE opens the door. A workshop was organised to find out how the Commission can effectively complement local, regional and national awareness-raising activities. However, efforts to streamline the design of material produced under ERA-MORE at national level failed. The most challenging task for the future is to sustain the work of the Mobility Centres after the EC funding stops, establishing ERA-MORE as a permanent structure. This requires investments both at national and European level. While the Commission continues to put substantial resources into networking activities at European level, models for the sustainable operation of ERA-MORE Mobility Centres have to be developed at national level. In order to exchange ideas on this topic, a workshop on cooperation models with policy makers and on sustainability was held in September in Greece. ERA-MORE members discussed, together with policy representatives, ideas and concepts for making the Mobility Centres sustainable. The results of the discussions were presented to the members of the SG HRM. From the SG members information was gathered on how they see ERA-MORE from a policy point of view and what the national plans for continuity were. It became evident that the added value of ERA-MORE is clearly recognised and that there is a willingness to continue in all countries. However, in most countries concrete plans, including of a financial nature, still have to be developed. EN 13 EN

15 Other Community initiatives in the field of information and assistance Co-operation with other Commission-funded networks, at both national and European level, was pursued. As a result of agreements with DG Internal Market, ERA-MORE members gained privileged access to the legal expertise of the Citizens Signpost Service. ERA-MORE was present at the opening and closing events of the European Year of Mobile Workers Prospects In the coming year, emphasis will have to be put on making ERA-MORE a permanent structure, in particular by: developing national models for sustainable operation; supporting networking activities run by the Commission and by the network members themselves; enlarging ERA-MORE to new candidate countries and countries associated with FP7; running a promotion campaign to increase the visibility of ERA-MORE services; measuring the quality of services through commonly agreed indicators and improving ERA-MORE performance Awareness-raising activities At EU level The awareness-raising activities in 2006 focused on the "Researchers' Night", which took place on 22 September The decision to launch a call for proposals for the organisation of a "Researchers' Night" in 2006 was taken on the basis of the 2005 experience. As part of the "Researchers in Europe 2005" initiative, the European Commission had stopped short of providing funding but supported of the event by supplying promotional and information material. The call for proposals was launched on 11 February 2006 and 61 proposals were received, from which 31 were awarded funding, representing More than 100 towns from 21 countries were involved in the Researchers' nights 2006 and more than people attended the events. In order to enhance the European dimension of the initiatives, European stands displaying promotional material and information, and showing an 11 minute-film were organised by the Commission at the main location for each selected project. As expected, a good deal of consistency was observed amongst the various types of activities and the nature of the message, focused on researchers and the importance of their role to society. Alll projects feature an impact assessment, notably regarding the image of researchers, and the very large majority of these indicated a positive assessment of the initiatives by those attending. EN 14 EN

16 At national level In addition to the 31 projects selected for funding, 12 other events received the status of "associated events" (which benefited from information and promotional material provided by the Commission). EN 15 EN

17 Examples of awareness initiatives at national level in 2006 BELGIUM: Over 2000 people participated in the European Researchers Night on 22 September Five major events were organised in four Belgian cities (Brussels, Liège, Louvain-la-neuve and Roulers). Seven partners joined forces in a consortium coordinated by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (belspo), including four of the biggest Belgian universities, four federal scientific institutes and one High School. A special edition of the magazine Science Connection was produced, featuring 15 portraits of researchers. Science Connection is a free magazine for the promotion of science, appearing five times a year with a print run of ( Belgium intends to participate in the 2007 edition of the Researchers Night, with broader coverage of the national territory and more cities/organisations involved. CZECH REPUBLIC: The mainstream media radio, television, newspapers and magazines have a strong influence on raising awareness about research and researchers. The Czech Television, Czech Radio, Mladá fronta and Lidové noviny (national newspapers) have regular columns and programmes popularising research and its personalities. There is strong cooperation between the media and organisations dealing with research, with open days at higher education institutions, popularisation lectures etc. For instance, a full day of games at the Technical University in Prague was organised on 4 October students from the whole CR took part in this event. ESTONIA: The Estonian Researchers Night was led by the Science Centre AHHAA Foundation, with the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Estonian National Television as project partners. Altogether the project attracted a respectable audience, drawing together more than 7000 active participants. The number of "passive participants" was (thanks to an Estonian Television live broadcast show on 22 September 2006 according to official monitoring), plus the people reading the articles in the newspapers (over ). The overwhelming opinion of researchers, organisers and the tens of thousands of participants was that the first Estonian Researchers Night was a complete success. GREECE: More than 4000 visitors participated in three Researchers Night Events in three major Greek cities. More than people in Greece were informed at least once about the 2006 Researchers Night initiative during the awareness campaign. More than people are estimated to have been reached by awareness activities after the project s implementation. LITHUANIA: A two-week-long science festival was organised in September 2006 in the biggest Lithuanian cities: Vilnius and Kaunas. The main topics of the festival were: science and the future of information technologies, energy development and personalised medicine. The five biggest research and higher education institutions, two museums, the botanical garden, four private enterprises, Vilnius and Kaunas municipalities, mass media representatives and the Ministry of Education and Science were the main organisers of the festival, which culminated in a Researchers' Night, organised in Moletu observatory. NORWAY: The Researchers Night 2006 coincided with the opening day of the National Science Week Forskningsdagene with some 1000 events by 200 organisers all over EN 16 EN

18 Norway. The RCN applied for and was granted EC support and coordinated and subcontracted nine local tailored RN events all over Norway, covering five of the six universities, which directly involved some 2100 people. A newspaper feature with information on the RN events was distributed in a print run of copies with two nationwide newspapers. POLAND: The 10th annual Festival of Science took place from September 2006 in Warsaw, aimed at promoting science and bringing it closer to the public. The Festival consisted of workshops, conferences, lectures, debates, films and guided tours in laboratories, and a variety of experiments. The areas of interest varied from astronomy, chemistry and physics, to philosophy, psychology and social sciences (programme of the Festival in Polish The Festival encouraged many people to take a closer look at science, generating discussions on subjects presented at the Festival. ROMANIA: Activities centred on research careers organised by the National Authority for Scientific Research included the Labour Exchange Market for R&D entities, called "Research Careers and Jobs", held during October 3 7, 2006 on the occasion of the Romanian Research Exhibition (annual event). SLOVENIA: In 2006 a number of additional awareness activities that tackled the role of the researcher in society and relevant statutory issues were organised in Slovenia by institutions from the non-governmental sector, mainly by the public fund Ad Futura and by the Slovene Science Foundation. Special mention should be made of the activities organised for the Researchers' Night in Maribor (by the University of Maribor) and for the Slovene Science Festival (by the Slovene Science Foundation), which was held in Ljubljana in late autumn Establishment of two young researchers associations, in Ljubljana and in Maribor, should be mentioned as well, since the two associations presented forums for debate on the visibility of researchers' role and careers Prospects A call for proposals was launched in December 2006 for the organisation of "Researchers' Nights" 2007, with a view to extending the geographical coverage of the events, and enhancing their European dimension, notably through the organisation of a drawing competition amongst young people and pupils in association with each selected project, the winners of which would participate in a European competition in autumn Studies/statistics At EU level Definition and operational surveying of researchers: The decision on what constitutes a researcher is commonly based on the agreed definition in the OECD Frascati manual (OECD, 2002): professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and also in the management of the projects concerned. EN 17 EN

19 While the definition is broadly agreed and has been stable for some time, the operational measurement aspect is still difficult. The main reason has to do with the International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO). ISCO is the standard classification used internationally in all surveys, but the classification does not recognise research as a profession. It only recognises "research and development managers". As an example, the UK is using a national ISCO classification with an occupational group for researchers which shows that implementation and data compilation is feasible. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in charge of the ISCO classification, has undertaken the revision of ISCO 20 but, so far, has not accepted the inclusion of researcher as a profession on the grounds that identifying researchers is difficult. Indeed researchers often spend less than 50 percent of their time conducting research because they teach or have administrative responsibilities. As a consequence, limited statistical information on researchers is available at European level. The only harmonised European data-collection is the Research and Development survey under the responsibility of Eurostat (Regulation 753/2004) which collects data on Research and Development personnel and some of their social characteristics such as education, occupation and citizenship. However most of these social characteristics are optional. As a consequence, very few countries are able to provide the information. Proxies do not yield information on researchers In order to fill the information gap, studies and reports often use proxy indicators such as Human Resources in Science and Technology (HRST) 21 as defined by the Canberra Manual (OECD, 1995), sub-classifications of which are Science & Engineering (S&E) workers, doctorate holders, and others. The table below shows the size for each population according to the proxy used in comparison to research and development personnel and researchers. As population sizes are very different, none of the above proxy indicators can yield information on research and development personnel, or researchers, unless we assume that these proxy populations have the same mobility patterns and social characteristics as the population of researchers. Table1: Comparison of various proxy indicators for researchers in EU25, 2004 Sources HRST HRST core Scientists & engineers R&D personnel Researchers In Head Count (Million) In Full Time Equivalent (Million) Source: Eurostat Similarly, some researchers are PhD holders but others are not. A recent survey by the European Patent Office found out that only a minority of patent holders are PhDs For further information, see HRST is defined according to the Canberra Manual as a person fulfilling one of the following conditions: Successfully completed education at the third level in a S&T field of study; Not formally qualified as above, but employed in a S&T occupation where the above qualifications are normally required. EN 18 EN

20 The IISER project In order to obtain more information on researchers, DG Research commissioned the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the Joint Research Centre to run a project called the Integrated Information System on European Researchers (IISER). The project started in 2004 and is expected to run until It aims at setting up a sustainable Europeanwide system of indicators to provide trends on mobility and career paths of researchers. The project in its first phase (December 2004 April 2006) aimed at: collecting existing information at national level in order to provide a first dynamic, albeit partial, overview of the European scene; conducting an analysis of gaps and methodologies in order to derive a fully fledged information system. In this framework, the Commission contributed to major initiatives such as the revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupation. producing six "fiches" on a pilot basis. The second phase (May 2006 April 2007) builds on the fiches produced and extends the list to ten indicators: number of researchers (stocks), mobility patterns (flows) and why researchers move (motivational aspects and career paths). Indicators are understood as providing indications, rather than precise data. The list focuses on the most relevant ones, but each indicator includes a sub-set of dimensions (sub-aggregates) that should be explored. Depending on the data availability and complexity, the list can be extended or modified. For each indicator, both reference value as well and development over time must be provided. Number of researchers (stocks) 1. Number of researchers (HC, FTE) Researchers in the training phase (the first 4 years of their career including PhD phase) 3. Researchers recruited under a work contract 23 Mobility patterns (flows) 4. Circulation of researchers within Europe (% of total number of researchers) 5. Number of researchers leaving Europe (% of total number of researchers) 6. Number of researchers coming to Europe (% of total number of researchers) 7. Circulation 24 of researchers between public and private sector (% of total number of researchers) HC Head Count, FTE Full Time Equivalent Excluding research under a training contract (e.g. PhD, post-doctoral training fellowship ) Circulation is from one employer to another, and does not include those leaving academia where they obtained their doctorate to industry. This needs further specification such as the length of mobility: is a temporary or indeterminate move? The move must be in the R&D sector EN 19 EN