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CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology is located in Brno, Czech Republic. It is the first EU-LIFE member institute based in a widening country. And for this reason, membership in the EU-LIFE alliance has represented for CEITEC an enormous opportunity from the beginning. CEITEC was created based on the model of established western research institutes. Members of EU-LIFE working groups from CEITEC have had the chance to learn and share best practices from their more experienced EU-LIFE peers.
In the Czech Republic, CEITEC MU was the first institute that applied for the HR Excellence in Research Award. The new Recruitment Policy forms an essential element of the fulfilment of the HR Award and underlines the strong dedication of CEITEC to be a centre of excellence not only in science, but also in institutional management. The institute strives to be a pioneer of modern research management in the Czech Republic and to inspire other institutes from widening countries to follow.
CEITEC MU is proactive in the area of raising awareness and sharing best practices in the Czech Republic, and expands the impact also to other Central and Eastern European countries. CEITEC MU annually hosts the Institutional Management Conference and helps other research centres and universities in the Czech Republic to implement such modern research management practices as well. In this regard, the institute takes a lot of inspiration from its partners from EU-LIFE, and this is exactly one of the reasons why the membership in EU-LIFE is so valuable for CEITEC.
CEITEC MU is a founding member of Alliance4Life, which connects ten leading life science institutions from nine EU-13 countries and aims to close the divide in European health research and innovation. Knowledge sharing is one of CEITEC´s fundamental values and probably also the key to its success.
CEITEC´s goal is to produce high quality basic research results that will be published in prestigious and highly cited journals. But what is the secret of success in research? The research output of every research group is mostly influenced by the skill set and motivation of its lab members. The aim of the new Recruitment Policy of CEITEC Masaryk University is to attract, motivate and retain the best possible candidates for any given research position, based solely on merit and best-fit with the values and strategic goals of the institute.
The HR Gap Analysis conducted in 2018 detected several weaknesses of the existing recruitment process at CEITEC MU. This newly approved Recruitment Policy specifically addresses the identified challenges and turns them into opportunities. The policy is expected to have a positive impact, not only for the job applicants, but also for group leaders as hiring managers and the institution as a whole.
“This Recruitment Policy aims to reduce inbreeding and is a good move towards improving the gender balance at CEITEC MU. A strong involvement of the HR department in this process will be beneficial for both the candidate and the research group leader, as it will improve communication and reduce administrative burden to the research group leader,” added Helene Robert Boisivon, who is leading her own research group at CEITEC.
The policy will help to build successful professional partnerships between hiring group leaders and HR professionals – where research group leaders serve as the subject experts who seek to select the most qualified and best fitting people for their teams, and HR professionals who bring quality management to the whole recruitment process and aspire to minimize the administrative burden for the hiring group leaders.
The new policy was approved by the director of the institute Jiri Nantl and is based on the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers issued by the European Commission and is commonly applied by most of the top research institutes abroad. Its main pillar is an open, transparent, and merit-based recruitment of researchers. The policy should ensure that a transparent and unbiased recruitment and selection process is followed, resulting in the appointment of the best candidates, who will be guided through an official onboarding process, ensuring smooth integration of new employees into the CEITEC community.
Since most scientific positions are temporary and mobility is a cornerstone of a successful scientific career, CEITEC is continually hiring new researchers. Therefore, the institute needs an efficient and professional recruitment process that will attract large numbers of high-quality candidates from abroad with a very specific skill set. The ultimate goal of a well-managed recruitment process is to leave a long-lasting positive impression about CEITEC as an employer of choice by all candidates – even the ones who will not be finally selected as best fitting for a given position. With such approach, even rejected candidates could serve as ambassadors of the CEITEC brand.
The new Recruitment Policy helps the group leaders to engage in a highly professional recruitment process following all important principles of modern recruitment resulting in hiring of the most qualified and motivated researchers. All selection committee members, will receive specialized training to ensure that the best candidates are chosen in an open, transparent and merit-based recruitment process and properly integrated to the new workplace.
More information can be found in the following documents:
CEITEC MU is a proud holder of the HR Excellence in Research Award by the European Commission.