The SNSF has adopted the DORA recommendations in its career funding schemes and adapted some other criteria. Follow this link to see how the SNSF intends to evaluate academic performance in a more equilibrated manner.
How to correctly evaluate performance
The SNSF has adopted the DORA recommendations in its career funding schemes and adapted some other criteria. Follow this link to see how the SNSF intends to evaluate academic performance in a more equilibrated manner.
Research assessment recommendations from Science Europe
Our partners at Eurodoc contributed to the latest and official publication from Science Europe on Recommendations on Research Assessment processes.
This is guaranteed to be a fascinating read! Hover over the text for all links.
Covid-19: The Quiet Crisis of PhDs and COVID-19
Please follow this link to read this sobering research article from Australia where the authors “….found that 75% of students expect to experience financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. Consequently, 45% report being pushed beyond their financial capacities and expect to be forced to disengage from their research within six months. Comparative pre-COVID data from an Australian national survey, reports research student disengagement of 20% over four years. The 25% increase of expected disengagement, in a much-reduced period, signals a deeper PhD crisis. Swift intervention is required to avert substantial impacts to the pipeline of research talent.”
The immigration limitation initiative is a losing game for us all
The limitation initiative, including the termination initiative, affects the universities to a high degree: it jeopardizes two bilateral agreements that are important for the Swiss universities: The free movement of persons and the European research framework programmes.
We would like to draw your attention to the following media release from swissuniversities:
Swissuniversities reaches an important open access agreement
swissuniversities has adopted a new transformative pilot agreement with Elsevier for research access and Open Access publishing in Switzerland.
Please see the details of this operation here!
Covid19: Not so good news from UniLausanne after all
Our member ACIDUL at UniLausanne has responded to all the red-tape for prolongation requests and is clearly dissatisfied with the application process.
Please follow this link for detailed information on ACIDUL’s requests for a simplification of these procedures in support of all mid-level staff at UniLausanne.
New bulletin from swissfaculty-INFO-18
The latest information bulletin INFO-18 from our partners at swissfaculty is now online. It features an article written by former actionuni co-president Salome Adam on why we need structural improvements for mid-level staff employed at Swiss universities.
«Er deutet damit an, dass es an der ETH Zürich einen Kulturwandel geben wird.»
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, recognizes the positive intentions of ETH-president Joël Mesot in a recent interview with züriost. Joël Mesot publicly apologized “to those affected by the unprofessional conduct of their supervisors” and presents a set of measures to improve prevention, leadership and the handling of conflict situations.
Read the full article here (German only).
«Die komplexen Abhängigkeiten begünstigen Ausbeutung extrem»
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, was invited to comment in the Zürioberländer News on the recent cases of mobbing and plagiarism at EMPA, the independent materials, science and technology research institute of the ETH domain.
Salome states that the complex dependencies of young researchers from their professors aid to cases of exploitation. At EMPA, two professors are being accused of mobbing, inexplicable cases of dismissal of employees, and copying of material from Phd-theses for publication under their own name without citing of the original author(s).
Read the full article here (German only).
actionuni in SRF Kontext – Forscherkarriere: Gefahr für Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden?
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, participated in a discussion with Prof. Aguzzi from University of Zurich on the misuse of power and mobbing at universities. Some real cases are reported but also ways are discussed of how pressure in research can be mitigated without compromising scientific quality.