actionuni der Schweizer Mittelbau / actionuni le corps intermédiaire académique suisse / actionuni il collegio intermediario academico svizzero represents young researchers as well as the associations of non-professorial academic staff of the Swiss cantonal universities, the Federal Institutes of Technology, the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, and the Swiss Universities of Teacher Education on the Swiss national as well as the international level. actionuni’s objectives are to improve the academic career tracks and to coordinate the activities of the Swiss associations of non-professorial academic staff.
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In Switzerland, 80% of highly-qualified academic staff is on precarious contracts.
A wealthy, education-driven society like Switzerland can do better!
If you agree, please sign the petition for more stable jobs in academia here!
And share the petition through Facebook and Twitter and whatever other channel you wish to use.
The Annual Report 2019/20 was published.
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.
When it comes to academic publishing and career development, further evidence of the widening gender gap as a result of covid-19.
We urge our partners at swissuniversities and SNSF to take this issue very seriously!!!!
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.
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.”
Follow this link to fill out Nature’s new postdoctoral survey!
The accompanying article can be found here.
Within the framework of the upcoming votation on the “Moderate Immigration” initiative, Netzwerk Future releases a short but sweet document on why Switzerland has everything to gain from participating fully in Horizon Europe.
Check it out right here (in German)
From Eurodoc President Eva Hnatkova:
The Eurodoc Conference and AGM 2020 is approaching fast and we are looking forward to seeing you all there online:
[http://www.eurodoc.net/online-conference-agm-2020]
I would hereby like to make a call for expressions of interest in our Eurodoc administration 2020/2021 positions.
We are looking for interested and enthusiastic candidates for the seven administrative board positions:
– President = leads the organisation and represents Eurodoc legally and officially
– Vice-President = supports and takes over from the president when necessary
– Treasurer = responsible for the organisation’s finances and financial transactions
– Secretary = responsible for communication and archives and tracking activities
– 3 x General Board Member = choice of topics such as the Annual Questionnaire
We are also looking for interested and enthusiastic candidates for our secretariat for possible positions:
– Secretariat-Coordinator = coordinates activities of secretariat members and liaises with the board
– Financial Controller = critically checks the finances and financial transactions and financial reports
– Policy Officer = writing and contributing to policy statements and reports
– Pension Officer = responsible for developing pension policies and liaising with pension stakeholders
– Skills Officer = responsible for developing skills policies and liaising with our skills stakeholders
– Project Officer = responsible for managing project applications and liaising with project stakeholders
– EOSC Officer = responsible for developing EOSC and cloud policies and liaising with EOSC stakeholders
– Plan S Officer(s) = responsible for collaboraboration with cOAlition S on the ongoing developments in Plan S implementation
– Council of Europe officer = responsible of represent Eurodoc at the Council of Europe
– BFUG Officer(s) = responsible for collaboraboration with Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG)
– External Communication Coordinator = responsible for liaise with the board and coordinate the activities of the communication team and issuing press releases
– Social Media Officer = responsible for messaging and interacting via our social media channels
– Newsletter Officer = responsible for collecting and publishing content in our monthly newsletter
– Language Officer = native English speaker responsible for checking and correcting Eurodoc texts
– Webmaster = responsible for maintaining and backing up the Eurodoc website and placing content
– Working Group Coordinator = coordinates activities in a specific working group such as Open Science
Some possible working groups which will need coordinators (and members) for activities and policies:
– Accreditation = discussing and developing policies on university and/or programme accreditation
– Democracy-Sustainability = discussing and monitoring policies on academic freedom; discussing approaches of sustainability in research and academia
– Doctoral Training = discussing and developing policies on doctoral training and skills development
– Equality = discussing and developing policies on equality with a focus on gender, ethnic and cultural diversity, and special needs
– Finance = a closed for Eurodoc members working group focusing on Eurodoc finances and funding
– Governance = a closed for Eurodoc members working group on Eurodoc governance and regulations
– Employment & Careers = policies on employment status and conditions and career development
– Interdisciplinarity = discussing and developing policies on improving interdisciplinary collaboration
– Mental Health = discussing and developing policies to raise awareness and improve mental health
– Mobility = policies on mobility with a focus on intersectoral and geographic mobility and brain drain
– Open Science = policies on Open Science with a focus on Open Access and Data and Citizen Science
– Policy Research = discussing and developing general policies for early-career researchers and Eurodoc
– Research Integrity = discussing and developing policies on research integrity and integrity projects
See our Eurodoc statute for more information on our organisation and legal regulations and positions:
[http://eurodoc.net/eurodoc/eurodoc-statute]
Note that all positions are voluntary: work is not financially rewarded but some costs might be covered.
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: