Eiroforum Working Group, Training and Career Development

Thursday 28 Aug 2025, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Zurich

Virtual

Attendees: Stefan Roiser (CERN), Tina Weilmuenster (ESA), Elizabeth Barzdo (CERN), Angela Aarndt (ESO), Andy Yates (EMBL)

Apologies: Eva Belonohy (EUROfusion), Pradeep Ghosh (FAIR), Laura Angeletti (ERIC/CERIC)

News
—

- The question on extending the working group with more members came up 
    - Eg. for CERN it would make sense to invite an additional member with expertise in HR. It was agreed to invite Benjamin Salignat to become member. 
    - Invitation also to all EIROforum organisations to think about inviting additional members. 

    - Rachel, agree to add additional members which can provide expertise, e.g. also HR for EMBL

- A question came up about the duration of convener ship of this working group
    - When the group was setup in Dec 2025 we decided for a “max of 3 years”. So end of convener ship of Andy and Stefan foreseen to be latest in Dec 2026. 

- WG needs to followup on “exchange program” a la US Oppenheimer with the aim to present a proposal at the Dec meeting with the DGs.
    - We need a new date for a brainstorming session, Stefan will doodle for a date

Feedback from EMBL on the coordination group
—

- EMBL has taken the presidency of the EIROforum 
    - The focus for the coming period will be on the next EU framework program and AI in science

- The coordination group met at EMBL and the working groups were presenting their activities, 
    - Discussion on potential overlaps with other working groups, e.g.         - Instrumentation working group organising an annual training event also focusing on mobility of staff 
        - international affairs WG interested in documents and reports produced by the WG, e.g. our “white paper on benchmark jobs” should be discussed with them
        - Overlap with library and Information e.g. working on responsible research assessment
    - Discussion on mobility and secondment, looking into mobility and secondment at all levels 

    - How to better coordinate and collaborate within the working groups? 
        - Invite chairs of instrumentation working group or others on common interests, 
        - Exchange among the WGs within the organisation is sometimes difficult, can be make this better?
            - Rachel will provide this feedback to the CG 
        - Also interest within the EIROforum organisations which WG exist and who can be contacted in each of them. is this information publicly available? 

Aob
— 

- Laura proposed a skills assessment workshop, the date for the workshop seems to not have been fixed yet, Stefan will x-check with Laura

- Next meeting 18 Sept 

1 News

Speakers: Andy Yates (EMBL), Stefan Roiser (CERN)

2 Report from EIROforum coordination group

Speaker: Rachel Coulthard-Graf (EMBL)

3 AoB