PLOCAN leads the European project SECURE (Sustainable Careers for Researcher Empowerment) to improve research careers and reduce job insecurity, creating conditions that allow attracting, retaining and stimulating talent growth.
Secure is a consortium of 19 European partners from 12 different countries that will develop coordination and support measures to create, trial, implement, and mainstream a common Research Career Framework (RCF) that offers a suite of options to support organisations in the recruitment, employment, training, development, progression, and mobility of researchers with the aim of improving research careers and reducing career precarity.
The project faces the challenge of supporting research, an exciting and challenging career, but which can also be a difficult, precarious and uncertain path, often purely vocational, but essential to build a society and a future where the competitiveness of nations, their security, well-being and even the survival of the social model is determined by knowledge and technology.
The RCF will recognise the research profession across sectors, provide a career development and progression structure for research careers, recognise both research and transferable skills and competences, facilitate intersectoral collaboration and mobility, and offer solutions to the precariousness of research careers in academia.
Secure integrates a consortium of research performing organisations (RPOs), research funding organisations (RFOs) and organization belonging to the industry, as well as experts in research careers, research skills and competences, research training and development, cross-sector mobility, Open Science, project management and public relations.
All this will allow the RCF will recognise the research profession across sectors, provide a career development and progression structure for research careers, recognise both research and transferable skills and competences, facilitate intersectoral collaboration and mobility, and offer solutions to the precariousness of research careers in academia.
The SECURE project will test aspects of the RCF and TTL models in trials in four RPOs, one RFO, and one recruitment agency.
The trial organisations will first conduct a scoping exercise to map the RCF onto their existing policies and activities for research careers before developing integration plans on how the RCF could be adopted into their existing policies and activities. Due to the short duration of the project and window for trials, it is expected that only some aspects of the RCF and TTL models will be tested.
The trial organisations will thus develop actions plans, selecting relevant aspects from the integration plans, to test and implement during the trials.
SECURE will mainstream the RCF and TTL models through a series of policy briefs and a summit that explain key aspects of the RCF and TTL models to relevant organisations employing researchers. The RCF and TTL models will be further promoted through key partner organisations in the project targeting researchers, RPOs, and companies. The RCF and TTL models will lastly be promoted in the EURAXESS network including the many EURAXESS service centres, the newly established EURAXESS hubs, and through the ERA Talent Platform being developed.
