In order to obtain the Seal of Excellence, the UV has been required to prove how it meets -or how it is committed to meet and improve- the forty principles of the ‘Charter & Code for Researchers’, and more specifically, the principles of the open and transparent hiring based on merit. Moreover, it has been positively assessed the action plan that the UV is committed to meet during the next two years in order to strengthen and make still more progress in the compliance of these principles.

According to the Vice-principal for Research and Science Policy, Pilar Campins, the procedure started in May 2016 after the letter of the Principal, Esteban Morcillo, addressed to the European Commission, in which he explained the commitment of the entity with the principles of the ‘Charter & Code for Researchers’. ‘I would like to thank the university community of the Universitat de València for its participation in the intense intern activity that has taken place to meet the requirements stablished in the award procedure and that has led us to the seal obtaining’, has expressed Pilar Campins.

The logo ‘HR Excellence in Research’ aims at promoting and improving the hiring, the working conditions and the research career, thereby contributing to the development of the European Space for Research.

Nowadays, there are 379 institutions with this recognition in Europe. Among them, only 17 are Spanish universities -all of them public ones- and the Universitat de València is the first one in achieving it in the Valencian Community. (https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/hrs4r)

Pilar Campins has also affirmed that: ‘It so happens that the Universitat de València has been one of the first institutions to which this Quality Seal is awarded. It has been strengthened with more demanding and continuous procedures to validate and maintain this recognition in the future in comparison with the procedure that was in force until the last months of 2016.

The Principal Esteban Morcillo designated a monitoring committee led by the Vice-principal for Research and Science Policy. People in charge of the head, administrative, research and teaching areas of the UV took part in this committee. Moreover, all the UV staff, including the students, has been consulted through the intern web of the UV.

Therefore, both the analysis of the degree of compliance with the requirements and the action plan suggested for the following two years has involved the participation of the university members and the directive and management authorities.

From now on, the UV is allowed by the European Commission to use the Seal of Excellence that recognises the quality of its intern procedures. On the other hand, this recognition obliges the institution to examine and improve these procedures. This is a necessary condition to revalidate the quality seal in the following years.

Links of interest:

Strategy of the UV for the Human Resources in Research (in English):

http://www.uv.es/uvweb/servei-investigacio/ca/investigacio-uv/hr-excellence-in-research-award-1286005500771.html

Principles of the Charter & Code for Researchers:

https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter