Recognition and reward systems are important in every organisation, and in universities, they’re critical. Skilled, motivated staff are the foundation of everything a knowledge-intensive university achieves.

Institutional members in YUFE are committed to making their university a place where excellence is recognised, diverse contributions are valued, and career development is actively supported. By fostering a culture of recognition and reward, universities aim to ensure that staff are motivated, engaged, and empowered to drive research, teaching, and societal impact to their fullest potential.

Within the YUFE university alliance, we work together to discuss and further develop recognition and reward systems for both academic and professional service staff. To share insights and foster discussion, YUFE launched a dedicated webinar series in fall 2025 focusing on this critical topic. The webinar series was created by the YUFE team focused on recognition and rewards. It was led by Chief Senior Specialist Jouni Kekäle at the University of Eastern Finland.

We sincerely thank all the speakers and participants for sharing their expertise and insights on good practices, and for openly discussing the practical challenges.

If you missed the webinars or want a quick refresher, see below for summaries of each session.

Dr Karen Vandevelde, HR Director at the University of Antwerp, highlighted the European perspective, emphasising that the European principles of an open labour market should also apply to research. In fact, closed recruitment procedures can hinder European objectives related to the knowledge economy. In practice, the development of the European Research Area, with a focus on creating open and attractive labour market for researchers, aims to create a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU. To achieve this aim, several support mechanisms have been established within the EU. These include the HR Excellence in Research process, which encourages universities to critically review and further develop their recruitment policies and practices. Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment principles are a core element of the HR Excellence in Research process.

Implementing the ambitious principles of open, transparent and merit-based recruitment is no easy task. Marjolijn de Clerq, a team leader in the HR department at the University of Antwerp, shared insights into how these principles are put into practice at the University of Antwerp. Among other things, openness means using channels that reach the target groups. Transparency means timely communication, provision of feedback, and use of clear selection criteria. Merit-based recruitment means the use of methods that help to effectively identify the candidate best suited to the position. The HR supports those engaged in recruitment by providing comprehensive training both in the local language Dutch and in English.

Recruitment and selection may take place in different organisational settings. Anne Adams, head of the Grants Office at the University of Antwerp, is the coordinator of YUFE4Postdocs. YUFE4Postdocs is a program co-funded by Horizon Europe’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie program. Two YUFE4Postdocs calls for postdoctoral researchers led to 55 recruitment decisions at nine YUFE universities. For the YUFE universities, the selection process meant a joint call, and coordinated evaluation and selection process. The selection process, along with the selection committee and evaluation criteria, were novel as they included societal aspects in addition to the core academic aspects. The innovative design illustrates how universities and their alliances may pilot new recruitment approaches, while ensuring the processes remain open, transparent and merit-based for all eligible candidates.

Professor Saša Zelenika, Vice-Rector for Strategic Projects at the University of Rijeka (UNIRI) finds it important that UNIRI is an active societal partner and puts a high value on knowledge valorisation and community-engaged research and innovation. This is evident in the numerous joint projects in which UNIRI is involved, connecting academic and societal partners and fostering productive, bi-directional knowledge transfer. As an example, in its CoARA Action Plan, UNIRI focuses not only on purely scholarly outputs, but also on contributions related to societal outreach and open science.

Professor Bojana Ćulum Ilić from the University of Rijeka continued by stressing that integrating both academic and non-academic perspectives is integral in addressing complex societal problems of our time. While many researchers have for long been active in community engagement, engagement activities have often been dependent on individual-level passion and unpaid labour instead of being institutionally recognised. Therefore, novel framing of community engagement as a core part of academic work and responsibility, with career-structured recognition and reward, is needed. At UNIRI, several measures have been implemented: institutional promotional criteria now include community engagement outputs; awards recognise successful knowledge transfer and science popularisation; special recognition is given for doctoral researchers’ engagement activities, and outreach activities are communicated institutionally.

The United Kingdom’s Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) explicitly recognises the societal impact of research and rewards institutions that demonstrate success in this area. At the University of Essex, impact is recognised through promotion criteria from Lecturer up to Senior Professor, dedicated workload allocation, and institutional awards, noted Research Impact Manager Kirstii Badcock. At the University of Essex, researchers are supported by a dedicated research impact team offering advice and coaching on generating and extending impact, integrating impact into funding applications, evidencing outcomes, and preparing RAE Impact Case Studies.

Community engagement and societal impact are also key priorities for YUFE as a university alliance. Magdalena Stremplewska from the Nicolaus Copernicus University leads the YUFE Work Package on Community and Civic Engagement. Like Professor Ćulum Ilić, she referred to surveys indicating that universities’ third mission activities are, despite their significance, only marginally recognised in academic career evaluations. In its work, YUFE has prepared a declaration which aims to foster student and staff competencies to engage with (g)local communities, and to increase the visibility of community-engaged research and innovation. Within YUFE, recognition comes in many forms: formal acknowledgment, personal benefits such as training and visibility, and informal opportunities to share best practices.

Dr Julia Sievers, Head of Academic Affairs, presented the tenure track system at the University of Bremen. The system is targeted for researchers shortly after their doctorate. In addition, the university has a separate career track for teaching-oriented staff. From the point of view of recognition and rewards, tenure track is an interesting case, since the reward is tangible – tenured professorship. The recognition part requires the university to critically reflect on which academic achievements will be recognised, and how they will be measured. Being recruited into the position comes with support structures from the university, with mentoring and tailored training program for the individual.

Career progression in academia has traditionally been focused on research contributions, often at the expense of teaching. Supported with its Room for Everyone’s Talent policy Maastricht University aspires to elevate the position of teaching as a basis for recognition and rewards. Professor, Dr Mirjam oude Egbrink presented the innovative career track at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences. At the faculty, academics passionate about education can apply for an educational career track, where teaching is the primary focus while scholarly research continues to be required. This career path formally recognises the value of teaching for the individual and helps strengthen the overall quality of education within the institution.

Discussion on career progression and professional development in academia is often centred on the needs of teaching and research staff. However, professional service staff make up a major share of university staff and also have career development needs. Based on his research, Professor Lars Geschwind at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, presented insights focused on professional service staff. Over time, university professional service staff roles have changed significantly, progressing from assistant duties to positions requiring high levels of expertise. New roles have emerged in response to the increasing expectations and demands in higher education and research, in areas such as quality assurance, internationalisation, and sustainable development. Interestingly, career advancement may occur within and across categories, with professional networks and associations playing an important role. Professor Geschwind highlighted doctoral training as a form of competence development for professional service staff that offers benefits both for the individual and the university organisation.

Today, academic freedom is under attack in many countries. It is increasingly common for researchers and teachers, especially in the social sciences and humanities, to face hate speech and harassment. Professor Tuija Saresma from the University of Eastern Finland provided a broad overview of the societal factors driving these growing threats to academic freedom, including the rise of authoritarianism, their detrimental implications on staff well-being, and the ways in which universities and other institutions have responded. Saresma underlined that universities must be prepared not only for an increasing number of attacks on individual teachers and researchers, but also for broader assaults on higher education, knowledge production, and science.

In her presentation, Dr Ritta Husted, senior leader in higher education at the University of Essex, emphasised the importance of building psychologically safe university cultures. Drawing on Amy C. Edmondson’s definition, psychological safety refers to the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. Creating psychological safety can be fostered by framing work as a learning process, acknowledging one’s own fallibility, and asking lots of questions. Husted also highlighted that trust and inclusive leadership are crucial for building effective workplaces. It is important to note that recognition may come not only from superiors, but also from peers and colleagues. In her presentation, Husted offered several hands-on ideas for making universities psychologically safe workplaces.

Doctoral and postdoctoral development are central to European higher education and research policies. They are of particular interest to YUFE, which is working to develop a distinctive YUFE approach to doctoral and postdoctoral education and training. Dr Karla Tersago, the Head of Antwerp Doctoral School of the University of Antwerp, leads the work package on the YUFE approach to Doctoral and Postdoctoral training. The YUFE model for doctoral learning builds on the YUFE DIOSI model, which places the doctoral candidate at the centre of the process. YUFE supports doctoral researchers both through the alliance and locally, offering a variety of formal and informal training opportunities. For postdoctoral researchers, YUFE provides training in transferable skills, such as grant writing and communication, as well as networking opportunities and career development support, including mentoring. Peer support groups created within YUFE have proven to be a valuable forum for community building and professional support.

For more information of the webinar series, please contact Chief Senior Specialist Jouni Kekäle, email: [email protected] .