HRS4R | CENIEH

Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R)

In 2005, the European Commission published the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (40 principles of the EU Charter & Code). The Charter contains a number of recommendations related to the rights and responsibilities of researchers, as well as those of their employers and/or funders.

Research institutions that implement the EU Charter & Code principles are rendered more attractive to researchers looking for a new employer or for a host for their own research project.

The European Commission offers support to research institutions in the development and implementation of the Charter and the Code through the "Human Resources Strategy for Researchers" (HRSR) project. Research institutions that can demonstrate that they make progress in aligning their human resources policies to the 40 principles of the EU Charter & Code, respecting its principles and policies, receive the "HR Excellence in Research Award".

Until now, 709 organisations, 161 of them Spanish have received the HR Excellence in Research award.

The CENIEH has fully committed to complying with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (EU Charter & Code) by developing its Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) and through its Open, Transparent, and Merit-based Recruitment policy (OTM-R), achieving the highest quality standards in human resources management.

Therefore, on November 16th 2022, the Director of the CENIEH, Dr. María Martinón Torres, signed and sent the letter with the declaration of endorsement of the 40 principles of the "European Charter for Researchers" and the "Code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers" and its commitment to get involved in the process of implementing a human-resources strategy for researchers.

Its Director, Dr. María Martinón Torres, has assumed the role of promoting and monitoring the process and validating the final documents.

On November 22th 2022, the Director appointed a Working Group to represent the three functional areas existing at the CENIEH (Research Area, Technical Area and Management Area) with 2 members from each, to lead and implement the process and to manage the communication with EC authorities. The Working Group has been responsible for the preparation of the internal survey, the Gap Analysis & Action Plan and for the analysis of OTM-R checklist, and they have participated and followed up the implementation process.

The aim of this project is to adhere, develop and implement the 40 principles of the “European Charter for Researchers” and the “Code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers” at an institutional level so it will apply and involve all workers of the 3 Areas.

The Working Group had working meetings on monthly basis, and prepared an on-line survey to get a sense on the perception of our research community and our technical and management areas, on the degree of commitment of the CENIEH with the 40 principles of the European Charter.

The questionnaire was based on the gap analysis template provided by the EC and was designed to assess knowledge and perceptions of the 40 principles. The survey gave optionally the opportunity to write down comments or propose realistic actions in each answer. The survey was written and offered in Spanish and English.

On March, 13th, HR Manager, as member of WG, made a presentation for all the staff at the CENIEH of the working plan and the on-line survey (Annex I), and from that day, the survey was open to all of them.

Based on the results and the expertise of the WG, a gap analysis was carried out and developed an Action Plan to align our human resources policies to the 40 principles of the EU Charter & Code.

On March 6th, 2024, CENIEH received the Initial Assessment with a "pending minor modifications" to work on it and resubmit the three mandatory documents on the Euraxess online platform within 2 months, i.e. May 5, 2024.

CENIEH is currently working on these modifications. The documents shown below correspond to the version of 03/05/2024.