Press Release: Taking action to stop EU brain drain: Commission proposes measures to improve researchers’ careers

A range of measures to help prevent Europe's best scientists abandoning their careers in Europe in favour of more lucrative opportunities in the US and elsewhere were proposed on 18 July 2003 by the European Commission. Based on a thorough analysis of career prospects in the EU, the Communication 'Researchers in the European Research Area: one profession, multiple careers' identifies factors that impact on the development of careers in R&D, namely training, recruitment methods, employment conditions, evaluation mechanisms and career advancement. The Communication proposes concrete steps to encourage and structure improved dialogue and information exchange with researchers and to establish a genuinely competitive research labour market at a European level. Recommended actions include a 'European Researcher's Charter', a 'Code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers', a common way of evaluating and recording researchers' skills, qualifications and achievements, advanced training tools, access to adequate funding and minimum social security benefits for PhD students.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/home_en.html http://ec.europa.eu/comm/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/home_en.html

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