Euroscience Open Forum 2012

The public ESOF2012 session will provide a platform for discussion of challenges shared in common by a mobile, international research workforce, best practices for addressing these common challenges, and the effects that these challenges have upon the global research enterprise. Until recently, national associations were relatively isolated and rarely communicated with one another. The past two years have seen increasing communication between national associations in Ireland (IRSA www.irsa.ie ), the United Kingdom (UKRSA www.ukrsa.org.uk), the United States (NPA www.nationalpostdoc.org/ ), Canada, and South Africa, ultimately leading to the development of an international consortium. The international consortiums will be collaboration between national associations and include reciprocal arrangements with other researcher associations such as the Global Young Academy (GYA), Eurodoc, and the World Association of Young Scientists (WAYS).

The session will discuss plans for making the nascent European Research Staff Association (EURSA) and the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICORSA).

Two core themes will be addressed:

Panel 1: What are research staff associations and their value to their countries? What are researchers and their value to the community?     

Panel 2: What are the policy issues that research staff associations address? How can ICoRSA offer guidance to international policy bodies?