Ethics&Code of Conduct
Human Resources Strategy – HRS4R

European Charter for Researchers & Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of researchers

The European Commission adopted the European Researchers' Charter and the Code of Conduct for Researcher Recruitment , drafting two documents aimed at researchers as well as employers and providers of public and private sector funding. Both documents have become key elements of European Union policy, making research an attractive career and stimulating economic growth and employment in Europe.

Specifically, the European Charter for Researchers outlines the functions, responsibilities and rights of investigators and their employers. The aim is to ensure that the relation between these parties contributes to successful performance in the generation, transfer and shared use of knowledge, as well as the professional development of researchers from the early stages. 

Moreover, the Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers was drawn up to improve enrolment, so that selection procedures are fair and transparent. The researcher's merit should be measured not only by the number of publications, but also by a wider range of evaluation criteria such as education and teaching, supervision, teamwork, knowledge transfer, management and public awareness-raising activities.

To help accommodate the research institutions to the Charter and Code principles, the Commission set out a procedure through which those institutions interested in including them, could design their own Human Resources (HR) Strategy.

HR Strategy in POLYMAT

POLYMAT endorsed the European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (C&C) principles in June 2014 and in May 2016 the assessment report and action plan to implement The European Charter for Researchers according to the 40 principles was elaborated.
HRS4R is a mechanism to support the implementation of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (C&C).
This procedure consists of five steps:
1.    Preparation of a rigorous Internal Analysis.
2.    Publication of the Institution Strategy in the corporate website to maintain and improve the Charter and Code. 
3.    Evaluation and approval of the Strategy by the Commission. 
4.    Application and continuous self-assessment of the process by the institution
5.    And finally, have the Strategy and its deployment evaluate externally by the Commission every four years after initiating the process.

Since the beginning of this project it is has been clear for POLYMAT that persons are the key factor for success, especially in the research sector. We truly believe that a professional and personal satisfaction push any organization towards the excellence. In this sense, POLYMAT focus its efforts in supporting researchers at all stages of their careers, providing adequate facilities, professional development and support and a good work environment, all based in our core values. The implementation of the Charter and Code has given us the opportunity to analyze, through a participation process, a lot of key aspects, realizing that some important ones need to be improved. We really hope that the actions chosen will help us to continue developing and growing in the quality of POLYMAT´s people management system. In September 2016, the assessment report and action plan to implement The European Charter for Researchers according to the 40 principles in POLYMAT, was sent to European Commission.

In July 4^th 2017 POLYMAT has obtained the ‘HR Excellence in Research award ‘.

The award reflects our commitment to continuously improve our human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers, the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and our commitment to achieve fair and transparent recruitment and appraisal procedures.

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Declaration of Commitment

Code of Conduct

Polymat C&C resubmission