Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), 4th April 2024. The ALBA Synchrotron, with more than 250 employees coming from 21 different countries, is fully committed to provide optimal working and research conditions.
Under this spirit, on September 2022, ALBA signed the Declaration of Commitment towards the principles of European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. And one month later a multidisciplinary working committee was created to develop a strategy to integrate these principles. One year and a half later, the EU Commission has awarded the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) recognition to ALBA.
The HRS4R is specifically addressed to research institutions, due to its needs to attract and retain high-profile staff. Most of the actions that can be included in the strategy can benefit all staff, while some of them are exclusively for researchers.
"We truly believe that this award will significantly improve our scientific performance and will establish useful policies to attract and retain researchers at our facility", says Arseni Armengou, head of Human Resources at the ALBA Synchrotron. "We face a challenging and exciting period ahead, with the upgrade of our facility. Therefore, it is of outmost importance to have the best professionals working with us and this recognition will help us to achieve it", says Caterina Biscari, director of ALBA.
The award has been given as a prove of confidence to ensure that ALBA's standards will be aligned with those from the European Commission. Now, a detailed list of 48 actions will be started to be implemented in 2027, including issues like ethical and bioethical aspects, recruitment policies, staff mobility, mentoring and career development, among others. See the complete Action Plan here.
