HR Excellence in Research
The European Commission awarded the WZB with the logo “HR Excellence in Research” in June 2013 and reaffirmed the award in December 2019. Since then, the WZB has committed itself to open, transparent, and merit-based recruitment (OTM-R). The institute values fair recruitment procedures and international visibility of advertised vacancies. All persons involved in selection processes are regularly informed about the existing standards and practices in the recruitment procedures at the WZB.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers were adopted by the European Commission as a Recommendation to the Member States in 2005. The aim is to improve working conditions and to ensure attractive research careers within the European Research Area.
The WZB strongly supports the European initiative and thus signed an Official Endorsement of “Charter & Code” in April 2013. Doing so, the WZB was already a forerunner on national level: So far, only a few German institutions have expressed their support.
The signature was immediately followed by a thorough internal analysis. The results were integrated into an action plan which was submitted to the European Commission in June 2013.
The process and the main actions of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) are summarized here. Further information on Charter & Code and HRS4R can be found on the EURAXESS Rights Website.
The European Commission expects a self-assessment two years after the award of the logo. This was carried out by the WZB by the end of 2015. In doing so, achievements and potential for improvement were identified and further objectives for the next years were defined. In early July 2019, the WZB demonstrated its further developments in a report on the period 2016-2018 as well as in an action plan for the coming years. Based on this report and a successful site-visit in December 2019, the European Commission maintained the award of the logo "HR Excellence in Research" to the WZB. The next evaluation phase will begin in 2022.
