Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R)

On 7th May, the panel of external evaluators proposed by Euraxess visited the University of Cordoba (UCO) for the renewal of the HRS4R Award. This distinction evaluates the UCO's human resources management strategy related to research, and is a recognition of the implementation of the 40 principles included in the European Charter for Researchers and in the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The 40 principles are grouped into 4 thematic blocks: Ethical and professional aspects, Recruitment and selection of researchers, Working conditions and social security, and Training and development.

The UCO established its commitment to adhere to this strategy in 2016 and was awarded the HRS4R Seal in October 2019, recognising the institution's commitment to the management of human resources related to research. From 2020 to 2023, the Action Plan has been updated with new proposals aimed at improving the recruitment of research talent, the promotion of activities to encourage the leadership of young researchers, or the management of procedures to facilitate the mobility and recruitment of researchers.

At the session held on 7 May and in the provisional report issued subsequently, the evaluators highlighted the commitment and involvement of the Management Team in the HRS4R strategy, with the involvement of several Vice-Rectorates; the degree of compliance with the proposed actions; the representation of the different groups of researchers (from pre-doctoral to senior) in the Research Committee; the implementation of a policy to improve the stability of researchers under contract; parity in the Selection Committees for research staff; and the improvement in the transparency of the selection processes.

The final report for the renewal of the HRS4R Seal, which is expected to be positive, will be received in the coming weeks. This renewal will recognize the UCO's commitment to the continuous improvement of the conditions in which researchers carry out their work and will identify our university as an attractive place for researchers from the European area.

This European accreditation recognizes the institution's efforts to adopt good practices in the recruitment of researchers and technical and support staff. The University of Cordoba obtained the highest score in the evaluation carried out by the European Commission to measure its implementation of the European Seal of Excellence in Research in Human Resources (HRS4H). This accreditation recognizes institutions that strive to adopt good practices in the recruitment of researchers and technical staff, with the aim of contributing to the development of an attractive European labor market for the advancement of science.

In June of 2017 the University of Cordoba obtained this quality seal, with the European Commission acknowledging the UCO's commitment to adopting the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. This materializes in the creation of an attractive working environment for researchers and technical staff, allowing them to achieve scientific excellence and provide all candidates with equal opportunities.

In accordance with the schedule established, two years after obtaining it, the UCO has submitted to an evaluation of the degree of HRS4H implementation at the institution. To this end, an internal report has been drawn up analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the four thematic areas found in the Charter and the Code, providing evidence of compliance and/or the degree to which the actions set forth in the initial plan have been taken, and, in general, to which the terms of the seal have been fulfilled over these two years. In addition, a new action plan was presented to cover until the culmination of the implementation phase, slated to last three years.

Based on this information, the European Commission issued a consensus report by the evaluating experts in which it concluded that the action plan has been implemented at the UCO in a solid and systematic way, concluding that the HR seal is, thus, integrated into its structure and that it is not necessary to initiate any type of corrective action. Highlighted as strengths were the university’s institutional commitment, as well as it reinforcement of its international visibility, the presence of the logo on the website, the existence of key information in both Spanish and English, and its high compliance with the action plan. In the next three years it will be necessary to develop a new action plan aimed at renewing the seal of approval in October 2022.

A moment of the meeting to set up the working group.

This year the University of Cordoba faces the renewal of its HR Excellence in Research seal (https://www.uco.es/investigacion/portal/HRS4R/es/). Within the framework of this process, new actions have been launched for this stage of the implementation of the HR seal at our institution.

The composition of the working group has been adapted to include researchers in different stages of their research careers (R1 to R4), currently constituting almost 50% of the group. The constitution meeting took place on the 18th, where the actions that had been carried out were reviewed and new tasks were proposed to have the seal renewed in the month of October.

An application was also launched to register the mobility of national and international researchers who complete stays in our research groups, thereby endowing the UCO with a tool to provide detailed information on researchers who visit our groups at different levels of their research training.

A UCO researcher in his laboratory / Archive

This distinction recognizes the University's efforts to embrace a strategy focused on obtaining excellence in this area.

The European Commission has formally awarded the University of Cordoba the HRS4R (Human Resources Strategy for Researchers) seal, which recognizes the university’s efforts as an institution or entity that funds R&D while adopting a series of good practices in the recruitment of researchers and technical staff.

The recruitment principles are defined in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct, drafted in 2005 by the European Commission, and are aimed at both individual researchers and entities that fund or contract research grants within the public or private sectors. The codes found in the aforementioned documents, which were signed in June 2016 by UCO, as part of a Declaration of Commitment, are in line with the institution's Strategic Plan.

The European Charter for Researchers outlines the roles, responsibilities and rights of researchers and their employers, its aim being to ensure that the relationship between both parties contributes to the successful generation, transfer and sharing of knowledge, while promoting research careers from the outset. The Code of Conduct was also developed to make the personnel selection procedure fairer and more transparent.

In this way, the merits of researchers are not only measured by their number of publications, but also based on criteria such as their training, teaching, supervision, teamwork, knowledge transfer, management experience and awareness-raising activities aimed at society.

In order to obtain the HRS4R seal the UCO created a working group including representatives of both its administrative and service staff and teaching and research personnel related to Research and Human Resources, with the objective of carrying out an internal analysis of the academic institution through a survey sent to 972 researchers and working group meetings.

Once the analysis was completed, a series of actions were designed to adapt the UCO’s mechanisms to the requirements of this recognition.

The HRS4R seal distinguishes the University of Cordoba for having a strategy focused on obtaining excellence in the recruitment of researchers, and prepares it to apply for Human Resources-related grants.