Brief – EU needs more new researchers

Faced with a shortage of researchers, the Commission wants to make a career in science more attractive with a charter for researchers.

The number of European researchers may have risen slightly from 5.4 per 1000 of the workforce in 1999 to 5.7 in 2001. But it still remains significantly lower than the level in the USA (8.1) and Japan (9.1).

In a bid to change this situation the Commission wants to make a career in science more attractive through a European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct, adopted on 11 March 2005. The aim is to give individual researchers the same rights and obligations wherever they may work throughout the EU.

Key objectives are to provide researchers with long term career prospects by improving their employment and working conditions, to create more favourable conditions for mobility within a given research career path and to introduce different means of judging scientific merit.

Read more with Euractiv

The role of scientific information in policymaking

A report published by an independent think-tank points to the weaknesses in the use of science by EU institutions responsible for risk management.