The UOC's HR Excellence in Research Award renewed by the European Commission

On 1 October, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) welcomed two European Commission experts who came to assess how the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) is being implemented at the university.

During their visit, the audit team held a series of internal meetings with both academic and administrative staff to evaluate the degree of progress in putting the strategy into practice. Following this external review, the HR Excellence in Research award granted to the UOC in 2018 has now been renewed, confirming that our human resources policies and practices are aligned with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

What does the renewal of this award mean for the UOC?

International recognition: it strengthens the UOC position as an attractive, ethical and high-quality working environment for research staff in Europe and globally.

Continuous improvement: it demonstrates the effectiveness of the HRS4R action plans implemented

Access to opportunities: this award reinforces the UOC credibility, aids talent attraction and is often required for participation in European-funded projects.

Strengths and areas for improvement

According to the European Commission's report, "the UOC demonstrates a high level of ambition and a strong commitment to the strategic integration of HRS4R". The strengths recognized in our strategy for excellence in human resources for research are:

-Strategic management of HRS4R.

-Recognition of open, transparent and merit-based recruitment (OTM-R).

-Working conditions: upport for doctoral students (supervisors and tutors) and the internal committees of doctoral programmes; mentoring for early-stage career positions; recognition of mobility; well-being services, and teleworking.

-Training and development: our own competency framework (aligned with ResearchComp); a specific training plan and course catalogue for researchers; the @AteneaAcademy learning environment; the design of researcher career pathways; training and active support for fundraising and proposal preparation, and leadership training for principal investigators.

-Ethical and professional aspects: an ethics committee and síndicatura de greuges (ombuds office); clear guidelines for the ethical use of AI; plagiarism detection software, and individual-level research assessment (annual evaluations for doctoral students and annual reviews for postdoctoral researchers).

The report also sets out a number of recommendations, which will be taken forward in collaboration with the teams involved.

Next steps

The HRS4R process will continue to run on a cyclical basis, with new internal reviews every 36 months, alternating with evaluation visits to the institution.

Internally, the cross-institutional working groups – made up of staff from across the teaching and research community, the governing bodies and the administrative departments – will continue to roll out the HRS4R strategy.

The UOC is committed to advancing this important initiative, not only to further strengthen its policies, but also to help incentivize excellent research across Europe, supported by internationally recognized quality standards and best practices.

Transformative, impactful research

At the UOC, we see research as a strategic tool to advance towards a future society that is more critical, responsible and nonconformist. With this vision, we conduct applied research that's interdisciplinary and linked to the most important social, technological and educational challenges.

The UOC’s over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups are working in five research units focusing on five missions: lifelong learning; ethical and human-centred technology; digital transition and sustainability; culture for a critical society, and digital health and planetary well-being.

The university's Hubbik platform fosters knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship in the UOC community.

More information: www.uoc.edu/en/research