A tenure track programme between Switzerland and Croatia giving young researchers the opportunity to lead an own research group helps tackle brain drain.
A Tenure Track Pilot Programme set up between the Croatian Government, the Croatian Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Government has proven to be a real success of collaboration. The beauty of this programme is the independence and opportunity it offers to talented early-career researchers. It enables young researchers to go to Croatia, where their talent is needed, and develop their careers on the model of a tenure track assistant professorship. A tenure track position provides a pathway for the young professor’s promotion to associate professor and later on to full professor. The idea to use the tenure track system to attract young researchers to Europe has been successfully used by EPFL since 2000, and led to the development of this particular programme with Croatia in 2013. The Head of International Affairs at EPFL, Olivier Küttel, has been working on this programme since day one and shared how this collaboration came about.
In 2013, EPFL was working hand-in-hand with the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education to propose their idea of a joint tenure track programme to the first ‘center of excellence’ call for the current EU research and innovation framework programme, Horizon 2020 (H2020). Unfortunately, they failed to make the cut as the design of a ‘center of excellence’ requested a thematic focus whereas the programme they proposed was purely focused on being an instrument that would offer young talents the possibility to go to Croatia and work independently. The Swiss and Croatian applicants were extremely disappointed of falling short and decided to find other ways of financing their programme. Despite all the political and financial hurdles and challenges such a project can face in its development, Olivier Küttel, and the people involved from both countries fought for their conviction that this pilot scheme could be an instrument to build on generations and giving them a promising future. The hard work paid off and the programme was officially launched in May 2018. It will run until 2024 with a total budget of CHF 4.6 million, paid to 85% by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation with funds from the Swiss cohesion contribution and to15% by the Croatian government. The programme offers a package that includes funding for a team, equipment, lab space, administrative support and, the freedom to manage these resources freely. The tasks and responsibilities of both countries are shared between EPFL, the Croatian Science Foundation, the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education, the Croatian Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The key partner for the implementation of the programme is the Croatian Science Foundation who published the call and ran evaluations.
In total, they received 20 proposals and finally signed contracts with three selected researchers; Helena Bilandzija, Kosuke Nomura and Lovro Palaversa. Their stories are great examples of how this programme is fulfilling its goal to combat brain drain. Lovro Palaversa was able to return to his home country of Croatia after more than seven years of scientific training in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Following his doctorate from the University of Geneva in 2017, he went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge. His plan was always to return to Croatia, but he previously did not have the opportunity. The story of Helena Bilandzija follows a similar path, after completing her PhD she went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in the United States. While still there, she nearly missed out on the opportunity of the programme, but luckily one of her friends made her aware of the possibility to apply, and she became an assistant professor in the same university she received her PhD from. Kosuke Nomura held a post-doctoral position at the University of Zagreb, and was offered a permanent job at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency; he had already moved back to Japan when he found out that he was selected. Because of his love for Croatia, he came back and said that the main motivation was to be able to work independently and form his own working group, which is one of the main strengths of this pilot scheme. Having academic freedom and own funding allows the researchers to solely focus on their research projects and alleviates the burden of administrative issues or the obligation to align their work with their superior professor in charge. The goal of the programme is to have young researchers bring in their new and innovative perspectives. However, they still need guidance and coaching, which is why they have mentors from both EPFL and their own host institution in Croatia. EPFL plays a key role by sharing their expertise and their best practice.
The importance of such intergovernmental collaboration is highlighted by Olivier Küttel, who said that it allows for an opportunity to change the system for the better and invest in and support young researchers. According to Küttel, the programme is a great example of how Switzerland contributes to the European Research Area (ERA) and helps to come up with new models that could tackle the challenges Europe is facing. This programme has been used to argue for the importance of brain circulation, but also its potential to serve as a model for how to support scientific excellence under ‘Sharing Excellence’ in the next European R&I framework programme, Horizon Europe. The idea of the programme is also built into a position paper published by CESAER on 3 February 2020, in which they expressed their appreciation of the current Croatian EU Presidency’s focus on brain circulation and used the tenure track scheme as an example for a positive experience.
Olivier Küttel hopes that this tenure track scheme will be used as an example: “It’s a scheme that could be built upon and used in the future within, Horizon Europe. It’s all about investing in people and giving them the freedom and the means to succeed”. It has already helped to create an opportunity for the three researchers who will be evaluated by an international panel at the end of their project in 2024. If their evaluation is positive, they will get a permanent position within their host institution respectively the University of Zagreb and the Ruder Boskovic Institute also in Zagreb. Those three permanent positions did not exist beforehand and will be put into place by the host universities to contribute to the programme. For the involved actors behind the programme, the hope remains that this success story will lead to other countries following in their footsteps. EPFL is working on extending its role in the development of tenure tracks by working on a similar collaboration with African countries.