Europe proposes minimum standards to protect researchers

Science Europe report calls for job stability, salary transparency, social security, and better prospects in academia

A red-haired woman wearing a white lab coat and blue latex gloves holds a glass vial above a metal tray of samples in a laboratory setting. The depth of field highlights the vial in the foreground; the researcher, with a concentrated expression, appears slightly out of focus in the background.

Science Europe, an association representing Europe’s leading research centers and funding agencies, recently published a report recommending minimum standards for scientific careers across the continent. The document offers guidance on how Europe should respond to the challenges faced by its researchers and provide the conditions needed to develop the next generation of scientific leaders.

The report begins with an alarming assessment: persistent job insecurity in European academia, characterized by short-term contracts, fragmented career paths, and a heavy dependence on project-based funding.

According to Science Europe, without structural reforms the continent is at risk of brain drain and a loss of competitiveness in research and innovation.

The recommendations were listed under three main categories:

Working conditions and employment
Research environment
Professional development

They address issues ranging from minimum salaries to anti-discrimination policies and access to infrastructure.

Working conditions and employment

The first category focuses on the basic conditions that sustain a professional career. On salaries, the report recommends that remuneration should be commensurate with a researcher’s skills, experience, position, and career stage, in line with the cost of living in each country.

Transparent salary bands and mechanisms that foster long-term career stability are identified as essential measures.

On the topic of mobility, Science Europe makes an important distinction: it should be encouraged where beneficial, but should not be treated as a prerequisite for career progression. The report also broadens the concept to include intersectoral and interdisciplinary mobility (rather than geographical mobility alone) as legitimate and meaningful forms of professional development.

On social security, the association suggests that researchers should be guaranteed access to pensions, healthcare, unemployment benefit, and paid leave, including maternity and paternity, sick leave, and vacations.

Leave for bereavement and to care for family members are classified as highly desirable. One firm recommendation is to establish a legal minimum paid leave entitlement across Europe.

Research environment

The second category covers institutional conditions that directly affect the quality and integrity of scientific work.

The report argues that all researchers affiliated with research organizations should be guaranteed academic freedom and independence, calling on funding agencies to explicitly and publicly support this principle.

Regarding career progression, Science Europe recommends that all career advancement mechanisms, including grant allocations, be open, transparent, merit-based, and inclusive.

To support that goal, the document suggests mandatory unconscious-bias training for reviewers, greater gender and disciplinary diversity on committees and panels, and increased transparency in hiring and promotion processes.

The report also addresses career breaks. Justified interruptions, such as absences due to illness or to care for a family member, should not negatively impact career progression, eligibility for funding, or research evaluations.

Skills acquired outside academia should be recognized, the report says, and institutions should support the reintegration of researchers after such breaks.

Finally, on anti-discrimination, the report recommends the creation of policies and codes of conduct with clear principles against all forms of bias (conscious, unconscious, or systemic) and regular monitoring of mechanisms designed to prevent and tackle unequal treatment.

“All research professionals should be supported and enabled to pursue available career pathways based on individual merits without any form of bias, discrimination, or unfair treatment,” the report states.

Professional development, well-being, and infrastructure

The third category focuses on the conditions that determine long-term career sustainability. Researchers should have access to the resources and support needed to develop skills relevant to contemporary research, with time formally allocated to this purpose, the document argues.

Advisor support and mentoring should be recognized as a form of professional development—both for mentors and mentees—and organizations should dedicate specific budgets to these activities.

Science Europe recommends that a healthy work-life balance should be promoted through policies that prevent excessive workloads and allow for flexible arrangements, such as hybrid or remote work, without negatively impacting career progression.

The effectiveness of these measures should be monitored regularly.

On access to infrastructure, the report proposes that organizations should clearly communicate what facilities, services, and resources are available and how to access them.

When resources are not available at a researcher’s institution, indirect support should be provided. Equipment needs should also be considered during grant application processes.

Science Europe identified the following as priority areas for immediate action:

Improving contractual stability
Strengthening social security
Reforming research assessment systems
Increasing transparency in career progression and funding processes

The association’s proposals were particularly focused on the needs of early-career researchers.

Science Europe recommendations

1. Salaries: Compensation commensurate with skills and experience; transparent salary bands; mechanisms for long-term career stability.
2. Mobility: Encouraged when beneficial, never imposed. Includes interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and geographical mobility.
3. Social security: Guaranteed access to pensions, healthcare, unemployment benefit, and paid leave; Europe-wide legal minimum for paid leave.
4. Academic freedom: Guaranteed freedom of research and academic independence for all researchers affiliated with research organizations.
5. Career progression: Open, transparent, merit-based, and inclusive processes; unconscious-bias training for assessors.
6. Career breaks: Justified breaks should not affect career progression, funding eligibility, or assessments. Reintegration should be supported.
7. Anti-discrimination: Policies and codes of conduct with clear principles; regular monitoring of measures designed to prevent unequal treatment.
8. Professional development: Protected time for training; formal recognition of mentoring; dedicated institutional funding.
9. Work-life balance: Policies to prevent excessive workloads; flexible working arrangements without career penalties; regular monitoring.
10. Infrastructure: Transparency regarding available resources; indirect support where necessary; equipment needs included in funding applications.

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