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European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers

EURODOC

Eurodoc's vision: A fair and sustainable research culture where early career researchers are treated with respect and have access to long-term and stable career pathways.

Lobbying Activity

Response to European Research Area (ERA) Act

9 Sept 2025

In its 25 years of existence, the European Research Area (ERA) has contributed significantly to strengthening the regions competitiveness. However, there are still large discrepancies throughout the region. It is our hope that the ERA Act can help reduce these disparities and further increase the ERAs competitiveness. The following are six key points the Eurodoc has identified to the full realization of a strong, fair and competitive ERA. 1. Promote and protect scientific freedom: We call for the enhancement of the professional protection of researchers by establishing an ombudsperson for academic freedom for researchers at the European level to represent researchers in cases where their academic freedom may be threatened. 2. Ensure competitiveness and promote and protect open science: To conduct our research as openly as possible and only as closed as necessary. It is necessary to strengthen fair competition and promote competitiveness by ensuring transparency about other sectors contributions to research funding and involvement in research. 3. Ensure responsible use of EU funds and enable European freedom: We call for the use of EC funds to be done responsibly and to promote competitiveness. If the research career is to be attractive researchers at all stages should be employed and not come at the expense of social security. Thus access to EC funds should be contingent on researchers financed through these funds being employed and that their employment grants them full access to social security. 4. Increase the attractiveness of research careers and address mobility barriers. The promise of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and ERA must be delivered and the professional status of doctoral candidates as researchers should be fully recognized and they and other ECRs receive salaries and social rights comparable to their professional qualifications. 5. Increase investments in R&I:The European Union must invest in Europe's future through the Framework programme and promote the member states to do the same. The targets should be 3% of GDP for the combined public and private spending on R&I, and 1.25% of GDP for the public sector. The Commission has invited Member States to activate the national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact to increase their defence spending. A similar measure could be taken to increase the R&I expenditure and to prompt reforms and investments by the Member States! 6. Ensuring independence and stability for the ERC and MSCA: A permanent and robust structural framework for both the ERC and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) must be established to ensure the independence. These programmes need long-term stability and the current threats of introducing directionality in the MSCA programmes shows that further protective mechanisms of such independence are needed.
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Response to A European Strategy for AI in science – paving the way for a European AI research council

5 Jun 2025

The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc) supports the introduction of the guidelines for responsible use of AI in Science. The guidelines proposed by the ERA Forum serve as a good starting point for future work. We are pleased to see that the guidelines are designed with the purpose of being a living document. We look forward to following this work.
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Response to Communication on the European Research Area Implementation

30 Sept 2024

Eurodocs overall assessment of the ERA is positive. We find the ERA Forum and the ERA Actions suitable and effective platforms where the European Commission, Member States, Associated Countries, and stakeholder organisations can align their engagement, share their views, propose solutions, and identify factors hampering the development of a European Research Area. For this reason, we urge the ERA Forum to further strengthen the possibility of all relevant stakeholders to engage. For more details see attachment.
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Response to Enhancing research security in Europe

3 Jan 2024

As the past couple of years have shown us, geopolitical considerations force us to address the openness of research and be conscious in our international collaborations. However, it is important to continue to recognize the importance of academic freedom in a democracy, and how interlinked these two are - one cannot exist without the other. In Europe, academic freedom must stand as a cornerstone of democracy and that requires that research remains as open as possible and only as close as necessary.
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Meeting with Jean-Eric Paquet (Director-General Research and Innovation)

17 Oct 2018 · Horizon Europe proposal