On 1 July 2022, YERUN held the launch event of the YERUN Paper on Rethinking Academic Careers.
The event was an excellent opportunity for YERUN to present its contribution to the ongoing debate at EU level on promoting sustainable and attractive academic careers and on reforming research assessment. About 60 participants joined online.
The event started with a presentation from Silvia Bottaro, Policy Officer at Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission on the progress made and next steps of the EU reform of research assessment. To access the PPT, click here.
Her presentation was followed by the launch of the YERUN paper with an introduction made by Inês Pinto (YERUN Policy Officer). She highlighted the set-by-step approach proposed for preparing for a cultural change in the assessment of academic careers, a way of laying the foundations for the change that we need:
- Identify what is not working well and delineate the key objectives to achieve
- Engage with different actors
- Communicate, listen and learn to deal with resistance
- Build competence for change and intervene when appropriate
- Make change last
This introduction was then complemented by a series of pitches on best practices in promoting change in the assessment of academic careers from YERUN member universities, which have been the basis for the preparation of the paper:
- Marjolijn De Clercq talked about how the University of Antwerp has developed an increased focus on quality when recruiting its academics. Her PPT can be accessed here.
- Jouni Kekäle explained how the University of Eastern Finland has established a system that connects academic’s career development and salary assessment. His PPT can be accessed here.
- Nataša Jakominić Marot shared the brain gain model that has been developed at the University of Rijeka in order to stimulate Croatian academics to return to their country by guaranteeing them satisfying professional development and personal living conditions. Her PPT can be accessed here.
- Anne Karine Nymoe presented the NOR-CAM toolbox, a Norwegian flexible framework developed for the assessment of academic careers. Her PPT can be accessed here.
Finally, participants engaged in break-out groups to ask questions to speakers and discuss the next steps to take at European, and even global, level(s) to bring change in academic careers forward.
The YERUN Brussels Office warmly thanks the participants for having joined the event and looks forward to seeing them all in future activities of the network!
