On the 31st of March 2015 the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) received the "HR Excellence in Research Award". This award and its logo reflect the IDIBGI’s commitment to continously improve its human resources policies and practices in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (Charter & Code),
The Charter and Code is addressed to researchers as well as to employers and funders in both the public and private sectors. They are key elements in the European Union's policy to make research an attractive career, which is a vital feature of its strategy to stimulate economic and employment growth.
The Girona Biomedical Research Institute endorsed the Charter and Code in May 2011, and joined the Fourth Cohort of the Institutional Human Resources Strategy Group in 2012, attending the Kick-off meeting of the group project in Brussels. Thereon the IDIBGI started implementing their own Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R).
During 2014, the IDIBGI carried out an internal gap analysis and completed an action plan for the next 5 years identifying a number of key areas for change and further development. This process was completely open, with the active involvement of an internal Working Group formed by representatives from all IDIBGI professional categories.
IDIBGI Action Plan 2014-2018 aligned the HR institution strategy with the European Charter and Code principles. This plan was approved by the IDIBGI Board of Trustees on December 11th, 2014 and the by the European Commission on March 2015.
On 2017 the IDIBGI Working Group updated the action plan after completing a self-assessment (see the Revised Action Plan 2014-2018 of March 2017). At the same time, the recruitment procedures and practices in place at IDIBGI were reviewed according to the European Research Area recruitment policy (OTM-R, Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment of researchers) and the OTM-R Checklist was filled in for the first time. The Interim Assessment was reviewed and approved by the European Commission on October 2017.
The HRS4R follows a cyclical approach of review, assessment and continuous progress towards improved quality. Therefore, on 2019, when the Action Plan 2014-2018 concluded, a new gap analysis and Action Plan for 2020-2023 was developed by the HRS4R Working Group. The OTM-R checklist was reviewed as well.
The same methodology of 2014 has been followed to develop the gap analysis with the aim to evaluate and compare the results and propose new actions to improve our human resources policies and practices in line with Charter & Code.
The Action Plan 2020-2023 was sent to the European Commission on November 2020 for their revision and renewal of the “HR Excellence in Research Award”.
