Application for the HR Excellence in Research Award

Join the reference group for the HR Excellence in Research Award

Only for researchers at the University of Gothenburg

We are establishing a reference group that will bring together researchers at different career stages to provide key input and perspectives throughout the HR Excellence in Research Award process. The reference group will help ensure that the voices of researchers are clearly heard in the gap analysis and in the design and prioritisation of actions.  

By combining institutional documentation with researchers’ lived experiences, we aim to build an evidence-based HR Excellence in Research Award process that reflects real needs and supports attractive, transparent and sustainable research careers at GU. 

The reference group will: 

• Reflect on working conditions, recruitment practices, career development, supervision and the research environment at GU from the perspective of researchers at all career levels
• Provide feedback on and contribute to the internal gap analysis and the formulation of the action plan
• Help identify priorities and concrete measures that can strengthen research careers and improve the everyday situation for researchers at our institution. 

The expected time commitment is approximately 2-3 meetings between March and September 2026, plus time for reading materials and commenting on draft documents, estimated at 10-15 hours. Meetings will be held in English. 

We aim for broad representation in terms of faculty, career stage and contract type. If the number of participants is high, we may organise smaller sub-groups to facilitate discussion and collaboration. The commitment is on a voluntary basis and will not be remunerated. 

About the HR Excellence in Research Award

The HR Excellence in Research Award recognizes research performing organisations that demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the 20 principles of the European Charter for Researchers. The HR Excellence in Research process is a long-term commitment based on a voluntary, structured, and periodically audited mechanism, centred on three-year cycles of continuous assessment based on gap analysis and action plans.

The HR Award Process

The HR award process is the implementation mechanism of the European Charter for Researchers. It is a voluntary, structured, and monitored auditing mechanism, centred on a continuous assessment in three-year cycles and based on a sequence of assessments, centred on gap-analysis and action plans for the implementation of the principles of the European Charter for Researchers.

The HR award process comprises three distinct phases:

• The initial phase, leading to the granting of the HR Excellence in Research award.
• The interim phase, which is an intermediate phase between initial and renewal phase and is meant to provide guidance in the first stages of the HR award process.
• The renewal phases for the renewal of the HR award. The renewal phases are based on a three-year cycle alternating site visits and remote assessments.

Phases in detail

The European charter for researchers

The European Charter for Researchers is a set of principles underpinning the development of attractive research careers to support excellence in research and innovation across Europe. The focus of the European Charter for Researchers (‘Charter for Researchers’) is the rights and responsibilities of researchers, employers, funders and policy makers; it consists of 20 key principles. These are classified under the following four pillars:

• Ethics, Integrity, Gender and Open Science;
• Researchers’ Assessment, Recruitment and Progression;
• Working Conditions and Practices;
• Research Careers and Talent Development.

It addresses researchers across all disciplines including science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and social sciences and humanities (SSH). It covers all types of research, namely frontier, targeted, strategic, applied and close to market.

The European Charter for Researchers aims at strengthening the European Research Area, by contributing to the development of an attractive, open and sustainable European labour market for researchers where the framework conditions allow for recruiting and retaining high calibre researchers.

The objective of the Charter is to ensure that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development, and to the career development of researchers.

The Charter addresses all researchers in the European Union at all stages of their career, across all sectors and disciplines, irrespective of the nature of the appointment or employment, the legal status of their employer or the type of organisation or establishment in which the work is carried out. It takes into account the multiple roles of researchers, who are appointed not only to conduct research and/or to carry out development activities, but are also involved in supervision, mentoring, management or administrative tasks.

Definitions in the context of HR Excellence in Research Award

‘Researchers’ means professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new scientific knowledge based on original concepts or hypotheses. They conduct research and improve or develop concepts, theories, models, infrastructures, techniques, instrumentation, software or operational methods. 

Researchers may be involved fully or partially in different types of activities – such as basic or applied research, experimental development, operating research equipment in any sector of the economy or society and disseminating and valorising research results. They may also be partially involved in, among others, project management, teaching, mentoring, supporting evidence-informed policy making, open science practices, knowledge and technological transfer activities, and science communication. Researchers identify options for new research and development activities, and plan for and manage them by using high-level skills and knowledge developed through formal education and training or from experience.

All researchers, regardless of their status and sector of employment, should be framed in the following profiles: 

• R1 – First Stage Researcher: Researchers doing research under supervision up to the point of a PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience.
• R2 – Recognised Researcher: Researchers with a PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience who have not yet established a significant level of independence in developing their own research, attracting funding, or leading a research group.
• R3 – Established Researcher: Researchers with a PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience who are able to independently develop their own research, attract funding, and lead a research group.
• R4 – Leading Researcher: Researchers with a PhD or equivalent level of competence and experience who are recognised as leading their research field by their peers. 

For the purposes of this Recommendation, R1 and R2 profiles should be considered early-career researchers, and R3 and R4 profiles should be considered senior researchers.

Useful links and contacts

For more information about the HR Excellence in Research award and related resources, you can visit:

• European Commission HR Excellence in Research Award page
• EURAXESS Sweden HRS4R information

The project is carried out by the HRS4R work group, which includes: Per Åberg (Project Leader), representatives from FIK and representatives from Human Resources department. 

The work group also involves additional experts as needed, for example from the Communications department. 

The contact persons for the HR Excellence in Research process at the University of Gothenburg are:

• Per Åberg, project leader: per.aberg@gu.se
• Andreea Maris, project coordinator andreea.maris@gu.se