Action plan for the HR Excellence in Research label
Based on these findings, an action plan was developed to improve the implementation of certain principles. In total, 16 actions and 19 sub-actions have been identified and will be implemented over the next two years. A monitoring committee and referents, in particular within the HRD and the DRED, will ensure this implementation, although some actions will require more in-depth reflection with the help of a few new working groups.
16 ACTIONS et 19 SUB-ACTIONS covering the 4 areas :
- Ethical and professional aspects
- Recruitment
- Working conditions
- Training and career development
- Action n°1
- Develop a standard regulation document according to the main C&C principles to be further customized by each research unit (in French and English) and published on the unit website,
- Show the University commitment to the C&C in all documents (contracts, partnership,etc).
- Action n°2
Create an intranet section to give access to research management information: different regulation documents, charters, consultative committees and main institutional commitments as well as a FAQ section.
- Action n°3
- Develop and reorganize information access and training to scientific data management, access to secure softwares, publication of results, open access as well as protection for intellectual property, risk of predatory journals,
- Training for scientific publication, provide a list of secure English editing services.
- Action n°4
Organize a training offer for new research unit leaders that will be mandatory ; this training will later be open to research team leaders.
- Action n°5
Strengthen the assessment and training of future graduates of the "Habilitation to Supervise Research" (HDR): self-assessment tool, training and information offers on Research regulations, management and supervision and how to succeed in this task.
- Action n°6
Open some of the PhD student training sessions to the postdocs (Ethics, intellectual property, Open sciences and open access, scientific integrity, soft skills to facilitate interviews to employment etc).
- Action n°7
- Modify regulation of some consulting and decision-making bodies in order to have postdoc representatives (Research Committee and Academic Council),
- Formally identify a supervisor for each post-doctoral researcher.
- Action n°8
Creation of a guide according to the OTM policy for the recruitment of young researchers (R1 & R2), promote interviews in the selection process of young researchers and organization of peer-to-peer information sessions to share good-practice for successful recruitment.
- Action n°9
- Standardize the recruitment process for young researchers (R1 & R2) with templates for job offers),
- Promote publication of the offers on the university and Euraxess websites.
- Action n°10
Improve the selection procedure for permanent positions:
- Improve information given to the applicants (description of selection committee composition, selection procedure, possibility of having a feedback from committees, information available in English),
- Publication of the job offers on Euraxess.
- Action n°11
Improve the functioning of selection committees according to the OTM-R policy :
- Each committee member will sign a commitment to respect the principles of the OTM-R policy and to declare any potential conflict of interest with applicants,
- Recommendations to each committee chair, vice-chair or rapporteur to write informative individual reports in order to give feedback after the selection is complete.
- Action n°12
Develop training sessions for applicants to university permanent positions to help them best present their application.
- Action n°13
- Inform researchers of possible help for career development and mobility with dedicated HR staff,
- Promote the participation into the ARQUS Alliance project.
- Action n°14
Improve supervision of young researchers with:
- formal identification of the supervisor of each postdoc,
- discipline recommendation for a ratio supervisor/PhD students according to each universitary discipline requirement,
- clarify the expectations in terms of scientific production i.e.: number of publications, rank of authorship, co-authorship, within the commitment between each PhD student and supervisor (charter).
- Action n°15
Improve and facilitate the development of research projects:
- provide more support to help researchers manage their team and projects,
- award a bonus in case of success of HDR graduation in order to augment and improve supervision,
- publicize and promote ERC funded projects.
- Action n°16
Develop an internationalization policy:
- translation in English of the majority of documents or information posted on the internet and intranet sites,
- having English speaking staff in the main administrative and management departments,
- publish job offers on international web sites at least Euraxess site.
Validation and implementation
After validation by the Academic Council constituted by 60 elected researcher representatives, the selected actions will be progressively implemented according to the defined timeline. A specific news page will be sent to the university community to inform about our committment and give access to the action plan. The HR referents will be identified: one in the HR department, one in the Research Management department and the overall referent in charge of the overarching management of the action plan. A new implementation steering committee will be set up with volonteers from the Research Community. The action plan wil be divided in 3 parts according to the responsible unit (HR department, Resarch management department and other responsible units) and send to the head of each responsable unit or department with timeline and indicators. Actions which require working groups will be pre-identified for prompt organization of meetings. Each referent will be in charge of updating the dashboard according to the progress and detect potential unexpected impediments. The dashboard and reports of working groups will be sent to the steering committee on a quarterly basis. The steering committee will then have a meeting focused on the actions that are late or with problems. The committee may request an interview with the head of the department in charge of actions that are delayed.The HR project manager will have to report the progress of the action plan to the Research committee each semester and to the university board of directors each year.