This diagnosis reflects the West University of Timișoara’s academic community’s perception regarding the practices associated with the human resources strategy in research. The main objectives of this study are:

• Identifying the perceptions regarding the importance of the principles in The European Charter for researchers and in The Code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers;
• Evaluating the perception of the participants regarding how much the principles are implemented in the university’s activities.

INSTRUMENT AND STUDY PARTICIPANTS

In order to achieve the stated objectives, a survey containing the following four dimensions was implemented:

• Ethical and professional aspects (11 principles);
• Recruitement and selection (10 principles);
• Work conditions and social security (14 principles);
• Improvement courses and career development (5 principles).

Each dimension was thought out by including the principles that cover a variety of aspects specific for the recruitment of researchers, as well as specific for research activities within the university. The participants were encouraged to read the contents of each principle and the to ansswer the following two questions:

• How important is this principle in research activities?
• To what degree is this principle implemented within the university?

The implemented instrument included listing all 40 principles, with the above two questions for each. A Likert type scale, with four stages, was used for measurement, where 1 means very important/to a large degree, while 4 means not very important/to a small degree.

The survey was implemented exclusively online, using the QuestionPro platform. The participants were invited, using their instituțional emails, to complete the survey available at https://e-uvt.questionpro.com/HRS4R-2024, as such 848 responses were received.

The survey was addressed to all teaching and research staff (R2, R3 and R4). Also, all doctoral students (R1) were invited to participate in this internal consultation process. Following Council Recommendation of 18 December 2023 on a European framework to attract and retain research, innovation and entrepreneurial talents in Europe (C/2023/1640), for the R1 profile we considered doctoral students, postdoctoral students were considered for the R2 profile, lecturers and associate professors (alongside Scientific Researchers grade III and grade II) were grouped in the R3 profile, while professors (and Scientific Researchers grade I) were considered in the R4 profile.