To recruit, enthuse and give talent from home and abroad room to grow, Leiden University has developed good HR policies for researchers.

Charter and code of conduct

The European Commission published the ‘European Charter for Researchers’ and ‘Code of Conduct for Recruitment’ in 2005.

European Charter for Researchers

The European Charter for Researchers is a set of 40 principles that specifies the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers and research institutions. It aims to ensure that the nature of the relationship between institutions and researchers is conducive to generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge, and to the career development of researchers.

Code of Conduct for Recruitment 

The Code of Conduct for Recruitment consists of a set of general principles and requirements that should be followed by employers when recruiting academic staff. These should ensure the transparency of the recruitment process and that all applicants are treated equally. This code of conduct also ties in with the Recognition and Rewards change vision as part of Innovating and Connecting, our Strategic Plan.

Leiden University endorses the principles in the charter and code of conduct and aligns its HR policy accordingly. In March 2015, the University therefore received the ‘HR Excellence in Research Award’.  To continue to qualify for this, we must keep on improving and aligning our HR policies with the principles described. From this perspective, Leiden University has tightened its HR policies under the heading Open, Transparent, Merit-based Recruitment (OTM-R).

Leiden University is proud to hold the HR Research in Excellence badge and is committed to keeping it. Every five to six years, it goes through an audit to retain this award.

Benefits of the award

• Reduced workload due to faster application process for EU Horizon 2020 grants. Applicants can skip organisational questions when submitting an application. 
• Improved working environment
• Reputation and visibility of Leiden University enhanced
• More attractive for research staff
• Incentive for Leiden University to regularly evaluate its policies

Be sharp, stay sharp

Leiden University works continuously to improve its quality, also in the field of HRM. The guidelines associated with the HR Excellence in Research Award are therefore a good match for Leiden University’s ambitions.

In 2014, the University set itself targets in an action plan based on several principles from the HR Excellence in Research guidelines. An evaluation of the action points and recent developments resulted in recommendations that served as the basis for a new action plan. This was presented to the European Commission in 2021. An audit of this led to further recommendations, which will be incorporated in 2022 for subsequent resubmission to the European Commission. The new action plan will be published on this webpage as soon as possible afterwards. The plan will be in line with our new Strategic Plan: Innovating and Connecting and the University’s associated HRM strategy and its Recognition and Rewards change vision.