Implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for European Union Researchers (HRS4R) at UBO

The UBO is committed to strengthening its attractiveness and increasing its international visibility, and therefore aimed to initiate a global quality approach to Human Resources that fits perfectly with the HRS4R approach.

The goal is also to focus on favouring a stimulating and positive working environment for its researchers and to federate the whole community around common values and principles in order to progress in the management of its human resources.

The question of the UBO's official involvement in the HRS4R process of the European Commission was therefore deemed essential. Preparatory work was thus initiated in November 2015 and on 28 January 2016, the Supervisory Board voted in favour of this commitment.

The preparation continued with the implementation of an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in UBO practices relative to the European Charter and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers from March to July 2017 and the drawing up of the action plan from September to November 2017. The conclusions of the assessment report were confirmed by the results of the internal survey launched between 15 and 28 June 2017.

In order to be granted the HR award, working procedures were adopted according to the recommendations of the European Commission.

On 20 December 2018, the University of Western Brittany (UBO) was the first Breton university to receive the “HR Excellence in Research award” from the European Commission following its European Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) review.

This recognition is a major advantage in obtaining funding. It notably helps the UBO to secure European funding (Article 32 in H2020), thus increasing the university’s visibility and attractiveness both nationally and internationally.

HRS4R is a quality process based on the principle of continuous improvement, for which the UBO has set up regular monitoring with self-assessment and a revised action plan at the mid-term phase, the details of which are referred to below.