By David Kent. Last week, the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICoRSA) was launched in connection with the VITAE Research Staff Conference. Forged in the fire that burns in the bellies of early career researchers with low salaries, little stability and poor career prospects, this organization aims to better the researcher profession by linking the individual (often national) organizations to each other. ICoRSA has been busy in its first year of activity – they have successfully engaged postdoctoral and researcher organizations from across the world (including the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars) and their current board members reflect a good mix of these organizations. More...

Last week, EUA Secretary General, Lesley Wilson, participated in the first roundtable meeting of directors of higher education centres and programmes in Shanghai, which considered “the role of higher education research and training centres in today’s complex tertiary education environment”. 
As an outcome of the meeting, the CIHE has prepared a statement on the “The Future of Higher Education: The Need for Research and Training for the Higher Education Enterprise”. The document, which can be downloaded here, is intended to highlight the need for “thinking capacity”, data, policy analysis, and professional training for tertiary education worldwide. A short version of the statement and a press release from CIHE can also be downloaded. More...

The Invest in Research international conferece will look closely into the problems of European human resources in research (with a special focus on young researchers) and successful responses from the Member States. Specifically, we intend to hold a forum to discuss the measures enhancing attractiveness of becoming and being a researcher in Europe.
What makes Europe an appealing place to do research? What draws people to research jobs? This conference will look at several factors, including (i) accessibility of proper doctoral training, (ii) availability of professional development schemes for researchers, (iii) the means for equating the remuneration for researchers’ work, and (iv) infrastructures supporting seamless work in research.
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Website Invest in Research 2013.