ECFA ECR meeting

Tuesday 2 Feb 2021, 10:00 → 11:00 Europe/Zurich

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Summary of discussion:

• Minutes to be uploaded after the meeting to Indico

• It was agreed on recording the meeting

• Goal of today’s meeting: organise ourselves

• Discussion about role of the organization committee:

  • Chairs of WGs should be part of it? (Steven)

  • How large should the committee be? (Xabier)

  • Committee is the PECFA/RECFA members+WGs chairs? (Xabier)

  • Main body is the complete panel, not only the committees. (Sarah)

  • Currently 8 self-nominated candidates + WGs <= 20 member, should be fine.(Francesco)

  • How long is the role taken over? (Sarah) -> Should be over two years, to not too often change it (Gianluca).

  • Current candidates fulfill not all a strict ECR-definition (e.g. not yet tenure track etc). Good composition could be at least one PhD, one junior PostDoc, one senior PostDoc, one senior. (Julien)

  • Agree on the mixed composition, but 2-year thing should not be a problem for ECRs, all do not know what happens in the time. (Flavia)

  • What happens to ECRs leaving science or PhDs changing countries/fields etc to go on in the panel? How does one step down when leaving the field? (Jeanette)

  • Maximum time for roles, but not a minimum time? (Sarah)

  • When leaving the field, it depends maybe also the field, e.g. a company producing for particle physics makes sense. (Xabier)

  • Each panel member serves an individual. (Pawel)

  • Summary: What is an adequate composition for the organization committee, or in general all roles in the panel? No final agreement. General agreement to have no lower time bound of taking over responsibilities (should be reasonable time scales), only a maximal one.

• How to define the criteria for the selection process?

  • Mixed experience state (PhD, junior/senior PostDoc, Faculty) (Steven)

  • Balanced in countries, gender, careers. (Gianluca)

  • Representing diversity and full Europe. Diversity in the working disciplines only minor, as here the WGs act more actively? (Julien)

  • Summary: only one from a country/lab, maximal 2 from the same career stage, diversity in gender, discipline-diversity as secondary

  • Open the self-nomination again to allow for more people to nominate (e.g. PhDs).

  • Financing of the responsibility (e.g. RECFA for travelling) is also a boundary for a candidate (no 3-party funding possible). (Jeanette) -> ask Karl about it (Is there a funding possibility already established, if not, how to create one?)

  • Shall the selection committee make a list of candidates for endorsement or a short list of candidates? (Steven)

  • Current list is already short -> selection of PECFA by committee, RECFA with the full panel (Flavia, agreed by Lydia & Xabier)

  • Endorsement of 5 selected PECFA by online vote of the full panel

  • Selection committee currently not balanced (1 PhD + 3 faculties)

  • Selection committee to propose the list of selected people few days before the next meeting. (Gianluca)

  • Position is not self-explanatory, e.g. what does PostDoc means. (Mariana) -> Experience and career path are different things. (Julien) -> Propose to add information e.g. on time of finishing PhD for the candidates. (Marianna, Sarah, Flavia...)

  • Selection committee to ask for this additional information directly? (Pawel) -> Let’s better provide it for all (Steven).

  • Do we allow now for more self-nominations? (Pawel) -> Yes. Define a clear deadline.

  • Added two volunteering PostDocs to the selection committee.

  • Endorsement of the selection committee without objections!

• Discussion of the composition of the organisation committee. 

• We need to define the overlap between the organisation committee and the PECFA/RECFA membership

• Proposal by Sarah to circulate a poll ahead of the next meeting to help the discussion.

• Selection committee only to decide PECFA/RECFA nomination

• Structure/ establishment of sub-panel working groups -> postpone to next meeting.

 

Summary of Action points:

• Reopen call for RECFA/PECFA members. Deadline of Sunday 7th.

• Selection committee to provide a list for endorsement on 11th.

• SW to circulate poll on organising committee composition/roles. 

10:00 → 10:10 Organization committee discussion

a) Defining the scope of the organisation committee, like:
- creating indico agendas for meetings
- creating doodle/lettucemeet polls to find dates
- handling correspondence with the outside world (the fully-public email list)
- organising chairing and minute-taking for meetings

b) Brief run-through of organisation committee self-nominations

10:10 → 10:25 PECFA/RECFA representative discussion

a) Reminder of the scope of the PECFA/RECFA representatives:
- 5 PECFA members, one of which is the RECFA member
- PECFA = observer to two PECFA meetings per year
- RECFA = participate in RECFA meetings, including in-person country visits 4-5 times/year
- handling communication between PECFA/RECFA and the ECFA ECR panel
- more details on slides 6 and 11 of Karl's talk

b) Brief run-through of PECFA/RECFA self-nominations

Talk by Karl Jakobs

10:25 → 10:40 Selection committee discussion

a) Discussion on how the final selection procedure will work, including:
- defining the function of the selection committee
(like: will they identify the RECFA representative, or will they define a shortlist of 2-3 people for open voting?)

b) Confirmation of the selection committee members
- reading out the names and asking for any objections (otherwise committee is endorsed)

10:40 → 10:45 Follow-ups from the last meeting

a) Any confirmation on the ECFA quorum/approval guidelines?

b) Revisiting the discussion on sub-panel working groups

c) Subsequent nomination process for open panel positions?

10:45 → 10:50 Planning the next meeting scope/week and who will make poll/etc

10:55 → 11:00 AOB