Request for case studies/personal experience of Researchers

The University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of Padua (Italy) are supporting a European Union Expert Group tasked with looking at possible changes to Social Security and supplementary Pension provisions in member countries designed to facilitate researcher mobility.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The expert group is focusing on:

• Identifying the most typical problems and challenges encountered by mobile researchers in the area of social security and supplementary pensions, taking into account typical mobility and career paths of researchers.

• Assessing the appropriateness of current social security co-ordination rules vis-à-vis most recurrent typologies of researchers' working status (employee, self-employed, stipendee, posted, etc.) and mobility paths and making concrete proposals on how to solve current problems, which may include recommending administrative changes, implementation guidelines or when appropriate legislative changes of current EU social security co-ordination rules.

• Analysing existing supplementary pension schemes for researchers and status and nature of bi- and/or multilateral agreements between supplementary pension providers making it possible for mobile researchers to cumulate pension rights, and proposing operational conclusions on possibilities of setting up and/or replicating supplementary pension schemes for researchers, and developing bi- and/or multilateral agreements on cumulation of supplementary pension rights.

The results of the work undertaken by this expert group are aimed to provide relevant input to the Joint Competitiveness/EPSCO Council meeting in early March 2010. They will also provide valuable input to the work of the ERA Steering Group Human Resources and Mobility, as well as to possible new Commission initiatives on new patterns of mobility and related to the portability of supplementary pension rights that may be adopted in the future.

A key part of the work is to collect case examples – personal experiences of mobile researchers (either moving within the EU or coming to the EU from outside) relating to any social security/supplementary pensions issues impacted by their mobility. If you have such an example please could you email Catherine O’Brien at co223@admin.cam.ac.uk. These examples will strongly assist in the work that is underway to evaluate the changes needed to encourage and facilitate mobility across countries and employment sectors.