Actionuni has responded to the consultation on the federal government’s austerity measures. We strongly reject these unfair and counterproductive cuts, which threaten the Swiss higher education and research system. There is no justification for such drastic spending cuts: Switzerland’s finances are healthy, and now is time to invest in the future. The rationale given by the report’s authors as to why certain areas have been targeted appear arbitrary, and their arguments are flawed. If we do not push back, these unfair cuts will fall entirely on the precarious mid-level staff and students. Please find actionuni’s response in the links below:
Category Archives: Position papers and press releases
Press release: 27.02.25
Actionuni’s response to the ERI Dispatch 2025-28 consultation
The education/research/innovation dispatch 2025-2028 (ERI dispatch / “BFI Botschaft” in German / “Message FRI” in French / “Messagio ERI 25-28” in Italian) is the central document of the federal ERI policy, which the Federal Council submits to Parliament for approval every four years. The 2025-28 ERI dispatch (French version/German version/Italian version) contains an assessment of the current funding period (2021-24), defines the priorities, objectives and measures for the new period , and requests the necessary funding (“guarantee credits”) for their implementation. For the first time, the Federal Council has decided to publish an early draft and to put it out for consultation for relevant stakeholders to give feedback on it. The consultation procedure was open from June 2nd to September 24th, 2023.
Because the midlevel staff of Swiss higher education institutions is highly impacted by the ERI dispatch, actionuni wrote a response to the consultation, taking position on the issues most relevant to doctoral students, post-docs and non-professorial scientific employees:
- the budgetary cuts of the ERI dispatch, which we oppose;
- the objectives for higher education institutions, which we salute, but would like to see completed with more attention to representation, to scientific integrity, and to improve research culture;
- international cooperation, which is essential for to quality research – in particular, a quick association to Horizon Europe ;
- academic career and next generation scientists, who need support and career prospects ;
- the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF);
- Equity: diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity, which is rightly identified as a priority, but should be accompanied by concrete measures from all HEIs ;
- open science, which strategy should go hand in hand with guidance and resources for its practical implementation ;
- ESKAS grants for international students, which urgently need to be increased.
You can find our full response below, in French and in English:
“Precariousness and insecurity do not promote innovation”. Interview with actionuni co-president Hannah Schoch
Actionuni’s newly-elected co-president Hannah Schoch in conversation with Kadermarkt as to how fighting precariousness and insecurity for mid-level academic staff is a win-win for all.
The War in the Ukraine: Eurodoc’s and actionuni’s positions
Both Eurodoc and our national organisations (NAs) express their full solidarity with the people in Ukraine and fully condemn Russia’s war. Please find all our respective statements
, calls for action, and policy papers below.
http://eurodoc.net/ukraine/statements-and-responses
The VSH Bulletin from August is out and a very good read!
Martina von Arx and Sophie Girardin, respectively actionuni co-president and actionuni ESKAS delegate, contributed with their own article to the new VSH BUlletin, issued in August. This publication focuses on the dialog between science and society
, now more than ever a relevant topic.
Enjoy the VSH August bulletin here
https://vsh-aeu.ch/download/317/VSH_Bulletin_August_2021_WEB.pdf
Eurodoc 2021 Virtual Conference
Call for Expressions of Interest in Eurodoc Administration 2021/2022 Positions
Send your replies to consultation@eurodoc.net
Send your replies to consultation@eurodoc.net
Dear All,
Our Eurodoc Conference and AGM 2021 is approaching fast and we are looking forward to seeing you all there (http://www.eurodoc.net/conference-agm-2021).
We are looking for interested and enthusiastic candidates for the seven administrative board positions:
– President = leads the organisation and represents Eurodoc legally and officially
– Vice-President = supports and takes over from the president when necessary
– Treasurer = responsible for the organisation’s finances and financial transactions
– Secretary = responsible for communication and archives and tracking activities
– 3 x General Board Member = choice of topics such as the Annual Questionnaire
We are also looking for interested and enthusiastic candidates for our secretariat for possible positions:
– Secretariat-Coordinator = coordinates activities of secretariat members and liaises with the board
– Financial Controller = critically checks the finances and financial transactions and financial reports
– Policy Officer = writing and contributing to policy statements and reports, representative in Initiative for Science Europe (ISE)
– Legal Officer(s) = responsible for reviewing contracts and agreement with Stakeholders and internal Governance; managing personal data and images
– Data Manager= responsible for internal data management and storage of data and documents
– Skills Officer = responsible for developing skills policies and liaising with our skills stakeholders
– EOSC Officer = responsible for developing EOSC and cloud policies and liaising with EOSC stakeholders
– Council of Europe officer = responsible for supporting the Eurodoc delegation at the Council of Europe
– BFUG Officer(s) = responsible for collaboraboration with Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG)
– External Communication Coordinator = responsible for liaising with the board, coordinating the activities of the communication team, and issuing press releases
– Social Media Officer = responsible for messaging and interacting via our social media channels
– Newsletter Officer = responsible for collecting and publishing content in our monthly newsletter
– Language Officer = native English speaker responsible for checking and correcting Eurodoc texts
– Webmaster = responsible for maintaining and backing up the Eurodoc website
– Working Group Coordinator = coordinates activities in a specific working group, such as Open Science
We selected 12 working groups which will need coordinators (and members) for activities and policies of the next term:
– Democracy-Sustainability = discussing and monitoring policies on academic freedom; discussing approaches of sustainability in research and academia
– Doctoral Training = discussing and developing policies on doctoral training and skills development
– Equality = discussing and developing policies on equality with a focus on gender, ethnic and cultural diversity, and special needs
– Finance = a closed working group (i.e., Eurodoc members only) focusing on Eurodoc finances and funding
– Governance = a working group (i.e., Eurodoc members only) on Eurodoc governance and regulations
– Employment & Careers = discussing policies on employment status and conditions, and career development
– Interdisciplinarity = discussing and developing policies on improving interdisciplinary collaboration
– Mental Health = discussing and developing policies to raise awareness and improve mental health
– Mobility = policies on mobility with a focus on intersectoral and geographic mobility and brain drain
– Open Science = policies on Open Science with a focus on Open Access and -Data, and Citizen Science
– Policy Research = discussing and developing general policies for early-career researchers and Eurodoc
– Research Integrity and Assessment = discussing and developing policies on research assessment, research integrity and integrity projects
See our Eurodoc statute for more information on our organisation and legal regulations and positions:
[http://eurodoc.net/eurodoc/eurodoc-statute]
Note that all positions are voluntary: work is not financially rewarded but some costs might be covered.
How to do Better Science-a roundtable with Joel Schaad from the Better Science team
On 31 May 2021, actionuni held a roundtable on the theme of improving research culture with Joel Schaad, the project coordinator of Better Science as the main speaker. Researchers from several Swiss Higher Education Institutions participated. Delegates, board members and some guests of actionuni were invited in this roundtable. The main objective of actionuni was to promote and support the better science initiative.
Joel presented Better Science
, a Swiss-wide initiative that started in the University of Bern. It aims to raise awareness around the theme of healthy research culture in academia and to open the dialogue on how to improve it. In particular, Better Science has crafted ten calls to action, which can be found and supported on their website. The presentation was followed by a round of discussion, during which the members of the audience actively asked questions and shared their opinion on this important topic. Participants agreed that there is a need to improve research culture and appreciated the charter and direction set by Better Science. Several attendees were of the opinion that to achieve a better research culture, structural changes and concrete measures coming from the top are needed. The question of how to monitor the evolution of research culture was also raised.
Overall, the event successfully engaged researchers from different universities and led to interesting discussions, with the prospect of a follow-up workshop or event related to the topic of improving research culture.
Podcast from actionuni’s Open Science event
This podcast is a shortened and edited version of a recorded workshop on Open Science, organized by actionuni, that took place online on 29 April 2021. It is distributed with a CC-BY license. Please cite as: “Podcast Open Science event actionuni”. actionuni der Schweizer Mittelbau , 29 April 2021. Please find the podcast here
actionuni’s first Open Science Workshop held on 29 April 2021
On 29 April 2021, actionuni held a 1.5-hour workshop online on Zoom in collaboration with MVUB (Mittelbauvereinigung Universität Bern), Eurodoc (European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers) and OILS (Open Innovation in Life Sciences).
Fifteen early-career researchers from the Universities of Bern, Lucerne, Zurich, Geneva and the ETH Zürich participated in the workshop. After a welcome address by co-president Rashmi Rai-Rawat, the presenter, actionuni board member Melanie Röthlisberger, gave a broad overview of Open Science practices with a particular focus on Open Access, covering topics such as routes to Open Access, its benefits and disadvantages, and national read-and-publish contracts in Switzerland. After introducing the main policy makers in Switzerland and their requirements and strategy, the participants then had to assemble information on structural conditions around Open Science at their own institution, such as the existence of Open Science Policies, (financial) support for Open Science
, and name of the institutional repository. Despite the small number of participants, discussions were lively and in-depth political, showcasing the high interest that early-career researchers have in the impact of open science policies and the changing publishing landscape on their academic work.