European Partnership for Researchers: the

Spanish approach

Dra. Angeles Rodríguez PeñaDeputy Director General for European Programmes

Ministry for Science and Innovation

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A European Partnership for Researchers: Key areas

Open recruitment and portability of

grants

Social Security and

Supplementary Pension rights

Attractive employment and working conditions

Training, skills and experience

3

Open recruitment and portability of

grants

Social Security and

Supplementary Pension rights

Attractive employment and working conditions

Training, skills and experience

A European Partnership for Researchers: Key areas

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Limited autonomy in hiring by public research institutions

“Internal” recruitment in public sector.

Specific mobility funding is still limited.

Mobility is the desired outcome, portability is a means to that end,

but…financial legal and organisational obstacles claim for

joint action!

Open recruitment and portability: main obstacles

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Giving institutions greater autonomy in hiring and adopting best practice on the recognition of qualifications.

Ensuring that all public positions are openly advertised online and improve practical support for mobile researchers.

Allowing portability of individual research grants by national funding agencies and relevant Community programmes.

Open recruitment and portability: possible actions

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National and Regional Programmes

Both open to applications from foreign researchers (even no residents).

Regional Programmes targeted to a particular region (Catalonia, Basque Country)

National Programmes:

Ramón y Cajal

Juan de la Cierva

Torres Quevedo

(to work in the private sector)

JAE doc

Regional Programmes:

ICREA (Catalonia)

Ikerbasque (Basque

Country)

others (Andalusia,

Galizia, Aragón)

Open recruitment: the Spanish approach

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Open recruitment: the Spanish case

ProgrammeTargeted

ResearchersElegibility

ruleFunding Duration

Ramón y Cajal(RyC)

2 – 10 years after PhD

Mobility43.370€ +

15.500 (start up)

5 (tenure)

Juan de la Cierva

1-3 years after PhD

Mobility 33.360 €3

JAE-doc 1 - 3 years after PhD

- 36.000 € 3

ICREAMore than 4 years after

PhD

4 years of international

exposure

salary of the researcher

(full professor)

permanent position

Beatriu de Pinos

0 - 5 years after Phd

- 34.188€ 2

IKERBASQUE More than 4 years after

PhD

4 years of international exposure +

mobility

salary of the researcher

(full professor)

Permanent position

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Programme LocationNon-ES

(%)UE(%)

Success rate(%)

Female(%)

RyC 20 (45*)10.7

(UE15)18 35,6

JdlC 2614.1

(UE15)26 48,4

ICREA 39,929.6

(UE27)10 18,7

Beatriu de Pinos

40-

12,5 -

IKERBASQUE 78,738.6

(UE27)7 10.7

* coming from outside Spain (20% foreing + 25% nationals)

Open recruitment: the Spanish case

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Open recruitment: the Spanish case

Spanish performance at ERC calls

92% of the StG holders were either RyC or ICREA researchers

28% of the StG holders were non-nationals

77% of the AdG holders were either ICREA or RyC researchers

38% of the AdG holders were non-nationals

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Open recruitment and portability of

grants

Social Security and

Supplementary Pension rights

Attractive employment and working conditions

Training, skills and experience

A European Partnership for Researchers: Key areas

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Social security & Supplementary pension rights

Why to address researchers? Are they a special category of workers?

No, but problems normally faced by other mobile workers can become more serious for researchers:

the high-mobile nature of research activities;

researchers often hold short/medium term contracts of different nature (i.e. employee, fellow, self-employed) that may not fit in general national social security co-ordination rules.

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Ensure that researchers and their employers have access to targeted information.

Better utilisation of existing legal framework.

Including rules to facilitate international mobility of researchers when concluding bilateral and multilateral social security agreements with third countries.

Facilitating the transfer of supplementary pension rights for highly-mobile workers, including researchers.

Encouraging pan-EU pension schemes targeted at researchers.

Social security & Supplementary pension rights: actions

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Social Security and Supplementary Pensions right: Spain

Early Stage Researchers are covered with minimum social security during their first 2 years. After this training period, all researchers have a work contract with full social security coverage.

Suplementary pensions are subject to private law. In this respect a top (COM)-down(EU27) approach will be more effective. Spain is looking forward to the results of the ongoing study "Feasability study of a pan-European pension fund for EU researchers" that will be finished by April 2010.

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Open recruitment and portability of

grants

Social Security and

Supplementary Pension rights

Attractive employment and working conditions

Training, skills and experience

A European Partnership for Researchers: Key areas

15

Working conditions

Complex scenario: EU and national labour law frameworks.

Problems relate to the low level of salaries, to availability of financial resources, but also to how such resources are allocated, in particular, how academic performance is rewarded.

How to best balance stability of employment with flexibility deemed necessary in research?

How to best reconciling professional and private/family life?

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Improving the career development opportunities for early-stage researchers by moving towards "flexicurity principles", regular evaluation, wider autonomy and better training; Research funders to take career development into account when evaluating research proposals;

Introducing more flexibility in contractual and administrative arrangements and relevant national legislation for senior and end-of career researchers.

Ensuring that all publicly funded researchers are covered by an adequate social security coverage.

Achieving adequate gender representation in selection and funding bodies and adopting policies that enable both men and women to pursue a scientific career.

Working conditions: possible actions

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Working conditions: Spain

Statute for early stage researchers

Stipend (2 years)

- minimum social security coverage

Working contract (2 years)

Full social security coverage

Experienced researchers (PhD holders)

Working contract (2 years)

Full social security coverage

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Pregrado

Title

Doctoral Thesis

Torres Quevedo

4 yearsstipend / contracts (EPIF)

3 years

10 years

Juan de la CiervaRamón y Cajal Programme I3

(2005)Modification of the Unversity Regulation Law (2007)

Researcher Sufficiency

Technical Support

Spain: structured research career

Public Employment Tenders at Public Researcher OrganismsInstitution Contracts of R&D

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Spain: The New Law of Science

ProfessionalDevelopment

Stages Description Contract Duration

Training

Pre-doctoralPhD yes 4 years

Post-doctoral Easly postdocs yes 1-3 years

Professional Carreer

Access Phase Experienced researcher

yes 1-5 years

Consolidation Phase

After external evaluation

yes permanent

Later Phases

requirements established by each execution agents of the system.

yes permanent

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Open recruitment and portability of

grants

Social Security and

Supplementary Pension rights

Attractive employment and working conditions

Training, skills and experience

A European Partnership for Researchers: Key areas

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Not only entail skills for the private sector or interaction between academia and business, but also to better respond to the evolving academic world, with rising emphasis on multi- and interdisciplinary research, competitive funding and international collaboration (Bologna, FP7 PEOPLE, Joint-doctorates in ERASMUS, EIT).

National skills agendas: 

To ensure that researchers are equipped with the necessary skills.

Developed in close collaboration with stakeholders in both public and private sector and with input of researchers themselves.

Training, skills and experience

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Amelioration of the training environment requires to ensure better links between academia and industry, e.g. by:

Support the combination of doctoral training and industry experience by the recognition of such training periods in academia (involvement of industry in curriculum development)

Promoting PhDs programmes cofunded by industry

Facilitate intersectoral mobility

Training, skills and experience: Possible actions

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Training, skills and experience: Spain

No national initiatives so far: training programmes are designed by each University

The new Spanish Law for Science will reinforce the intersectoral mobility, allowing temporary leaves from the public into the private sector.