At the beginning Maria Unger (OeAD) gave an overview of the current developments in EURAXESS, the activities in recently completed projects and an insight into the plans for the future. Three digital platforms (hubs) on the following topics are new: academia and the public sector, research beyond academia and start-ups. Last year’s highlight was the EURAXESS annual conference 2022, themed “Well-being”, which took place in Nantes from 23 to 25 March. Therese Lindahl (FFG), Jasmin Hus (TU Graz), Ann-Kristin Kehrberg (TU Vienna) und Maria Unger (OeAD) talked about what they learnt from their participation in this conference. Moreover, the updated Researcher's Guide to Austria is now available for download at euraxess.at. This guide not only provides information about the Austrian research and development landscape but also about entry and residence regulations, taxes, social security and family matters in Austria and also provides information for international doctoral/PhD students, scientists and researchers and their families.
The subsequent programme item was dedicated to the latest developments in the European Research Area. Ylva Huber (FFG) presented the ERA Policy Agenda 2022-2024 and the associated 20 fields of action and gave an overview of the focus in terms of content and the time horizon for the preparation of the Austrian ERA Action Plan. Following this, Lil Reif (FFG) gave a brief insight into the activities of the Working Group Careers in Research. This cross-sectoral working group was established to develop recommendations for permeable and sustainable career models in the Austrian higher education and research area. Furthermore, Therese Lindahl (FFG) briefly talked about the Mutual Learning Exercise to support intersectoral mobility of researchers, in which Austria is involved together with a number of other countries (BMBWF/Martina Hartl and FFG/Therese Lindahl) and for which a final event is planned for the end of 2023.
At the EURAXESS Café in the afternoon Andrea Navarro-Quezada (JKU Linz) talked about her EURAXESS group study visit regarding measures to prepare doctoral students for career opportunities in non-academic contexts, e.g. companies. Sonja Falkner-Matzinger (JKU Linz) gave an insight into the set-up of an International Welcome Centre.
The last item on the day’s programme was an update on entry and residence requirements with a presentation by Tanja Raab, legal expert at the OeAD.
All presentations are available for download on the EURAXESS Austria website.