EURAXESS workshop - Science excellence in higher education system and employability in Montenegro

The University of Montenegro as a EURAXESS Service Center in the country organized a workshop / round table on "Science excellence in higher education system and employability in Montenegro - HRS4R process and research mobility conditions" on June 25, 2021, with the aim to support all Montenegrin higher education institutions in improving the relationship between researchers and employers, and setting science and research as the core pillars of their development and internationalization.

Round table on “Science excellence in higher education system and employability in Montenegro - HRS4R process and research mobility conditions” is part of the activities of the EURAXESS initiative supporting efficient research and mobility framework for national and international researchers, following the principles and standards of the European Commission European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (The European Charter & Code for Researchers (Charter and Code for researchers) aiming at making research an attractive career and support economic and employment growth in the European Union. These two documents represents the set of guidelines and requirements that specify the role, responsibilities and rights of researchers and their employers, giving individual researchers the same rights and obligations wherever they may work throughout the European Union and deploy scientific potential throughout the Europe and wider. The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers aims to improve recruitment, ensure fairer and more transparent selection procedures taking into account wider range of evaluation criteria apart of number of publications, such as teaching, supervision, teamwork, knowledge transfer, management and public awareness activities.

One of the instruments for achieving and improving the research conditions for employability is the HR Excellence in Research Award (HR Award - logo), a prestigious award given by the European Commission for excellence in the care of human resources in the scientific environment. The Award is considered an international standard for quality rules in the management and development of human resources in science and research and pose as a guarantee of the European standard of employee care, openness and transparency of the recruitment process and the quality of the working environment. In the wider context the Award reinforce attractiveness of research organizations when approaching researchers from abroad or for obtaining grants as it gives public recognition to research institutions that have made progress in aligning their human resource policies with the principles set out in the "Charter & Code". Accepting, implementing and subscribe to the principles enshrined in the "European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers" is condition to receive the HR Award – logo ((Human Resources Strategy for Researchers - HRS4R). The University of Montenegro if one of the 599 organisations have received the HR Excellence in Research award.

With the aim to encourage and foster effective communication and exchange of information for the process of obtaining the HR logo and thus strengthening the framework of excellence in the higher education system in Montenegro, the University of Montenegro invited all accredited higher education institutions in the Country to participate in the round table, including Montenegro EURAXESS contacts points, and thus share its experience in the HRS4R process and contribute to the expansion of the network of national scientific institutions that should carry this prestigious logo. Distinguished Professor Miroslav Malinović, Head of the Department of History and Theory of Architecture and Preservation of Architectural Heritage from University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and evaluator of the HR process within EURAXESS initiative made a significant contribution to making the presented information and HRS4R process propositions clear, practical and interesting.

Taking into account that networking of researchers and professors, as well as openness and availability of data are key to strengthening the research and innovative potentials of universities and faculties, the workshop presented the activities of the INO NET project aimed at upgrading the national portal Scientific Network with a new service "mentoring" and activities carried out by the University of Montenegro that contributes to the European Open Science Cloud - EOSC initiative funded by the European Commission.

Below are the accompanying documents of the workshop: agenda and presentations.