Category Archives: Position papers and press releases

Swiss-Wide Mental Health Survey (SWiMS)

Position papers and press releases, Survey, Uncategorized

The results of our survey on the mental health of academic mid-level staff in Switzerland are alarming.

After two years of work, today, we can finally publish the results of the Swiss-Wide Mental Health Survey (SWiMS)! SWiMS was conducted in collaboration with 13 mid-level staff associations across Switzerland in 2024. We surveyed more than 2,500 mid-level academic staff across Switzerland – primarily doctoral researchers and postdocs – about their mental health and working conditions.

The findings are alarming:

  • 22% show critical levels of depressive symptoms
  • 24% feel burned out on a weekly basis
  • Lack of career prospects is the most cited stressor (39% report being “completely” stressed about this, 59% among postdocs only)
  • Over half are unaware of available mental health resources or doubt their effectiveness

This situation threatens not only individual well-being but also the quality of research and teaching. In a statement accompanying the publication of the survey, the co-presidency of actionuni proposes structural measures to the federal government, the cantons, and higher education institutions aimed at sustainably improving the mental health of mid-level faculty and their career prospects, as well as maintaining the quality of research.

The SWiMS 2024 report and a statement by actionuni’s co-presidents are available here.

The actionuni survey team consists of Zoran Kovacevic (ETH Zürich), Neele H. Heiser (University of Geneva), Patricia Eiche (University of Basel), and Dr. Timon Elmer (University of Zurich). Many thanks to them and the 13 partaking mid-level staff associations for their work on this survey. 

Response to the austerity measures consultation

Position papers and press releases

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:

FR | DE

Actionuni’s response to the ERI Dispatch 2025-28 consultation

Position paper, Position papers and press releases, SBFI

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:

Response actionuni ERI Dispatch 25-28

Prise de position d’actionuni sur le message FRI 25-28

“Precariousness and insecurity do not promote innovation”. Interview with actionuni co-president Hannah Schoch

Position papers and press releases, Press release

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.

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The War in the Ukraine: Eurodoc’s and actionuni’s positions

Eurodoc, Events, networking activities, Position paper, Position papers and press releases

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

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, 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!

networking activities, Position paper, Position papers and press releases

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

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, 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

Eurodoc, Events, networking activities
Call for Expressions of Interest in Eurodoc Administration 2021/2022 Positions
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

Events, networking activities, Uncategorized

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

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, 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.