The action supports consortia to create ‘talent ecosystems’ with a large pool of research and innovation positions operating under good training and working conditions in line with the new Charter for Researchers and the Council recommendation on a European framework for research careers, providing non-academic organisations, particularly businesses, with well-skilled researchers and other R&I talents, thereby increasing employability of early career researchers and improving interoperability of their careers between sectors.

This action particularly supports whole organisations and innovation ecosystems to implement the standards for attractive research careers laid down in the Charter for Researchers. A special focus is placed on organisational change in support of early career researchers, to offer them more and better career opportunities, including through strengthened coordination of measures at European, national, and regional level and increased cooperation between academia, industry, government and public sector.

The action is expected to be implemented by consortia consisting of both training providers (in particular academia) and employers of researchers (academia and organisations from non-academic sector, in particular businesses) from across the European Research Area, creating connected “talent ecosystems” that allow the free flow of talents and create attractive perspectives for researchers’ careers within this ecosystem and beyond. A talent ecosystem for researchers is to be understood as a cohesive and interdependent system that encompasses various elements related to HR management of research talent. It can be thematic (e.g., targeted to R&I on climate, pharma, automotive, music industry) or have a more comprehensive target. It is designed to adapt to the evolving needs of the researcher labour market and the different occupations for researchers across sectors along the R1-R4 profiles, ensuring more customised training, career development and talent flowthrough. Such ecosystem is built around delivering a better employee experience and aligning with frequently changing priorities; it is agile and flexible to environmental shifts in the R&I system, such as changing labour market dynamics and skills needs. It provides distinct strategies for managing different research profiles, essential for competing in the global labour market, while delivering skilled research talent that match European labour market needs.

Consortia are expected to mainstream the Charter’s principles and good working conditions across all participating organisations, which need to demonstrate in the application a high ambition as to the number of (new or existing) research positions that will benefit from the organisational change within the duration of the grant, ultimately leading to coverage of all its research staff. Participating organisations are expected to have received the HR Excellence in Research Award (HRS4R) or commit to apply the new Charter for Researchers and commit to its implementation (i.e., start the HRS4R process) within the grant duration, as far as relevant for their operations linked to the employment of researchers.

This action does not support salaries and mobility of individual researchers or teams of researchers. Instead, this action supports activities that lead to organisational change for more attractive research careers in line with the needs of R&I labour market players, towards the creation of sustainable talent ecosystems.

Funding will support implementation of good working conditions and reinforce flowthrough of talents between sectors, towards better employability of talent trained as researcher and increased interoperability of research careers between academia and non-academic sector entities. Activities can include (non-exhaustive list) the mapping of challenges, the development of action plans to bring the organisations in line with the new Charter for Researchers, scaling excellence in HR, and networking and relationship building for connecting the talent ecosystem partners. On a more practical level, activities could include the roll out of ResearchComp in the organisational training and career development activities, the establishment of career services and training systems for early career researchers, the involvement of non-academic sector in the training of researchers, and relationship building between sectors for talent circulation.

This action is a pilot, testing the principles for a future investment strategy for attractive research careers at whole organisation and ecosystem level.