Brussels, 03/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - In order to encourage mobility among researchers in the EU, a consortium was launched on Wednesday 1 October, with the financial support of the European Commission, with the aim of setting in place a pension scheme in 2015 for researchers who choose to work in different member states over the course of their careers.
In the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme, the Commission has pledged to provide funding for the start-up and creation costs for the consortium through a four-year contract to be concluded by the end of this year. If the Commission has decided to provide funding for such a long period, with the system to be set up in 2015, it is because of the risks run by its first customers, who could have to contend with high initial costs due to the latency in achieving a critical mass in contributions. This consortium will work as a non-profit making international association, registered in Belgium.
This pension scheme aims to respond to four objectives: - allowing a cross-border pooling of pension schemes; - ensuring continuity in accumulating pension contributions for professionals moving between countries and organisations over the course of their careers; - bringing general costs down, thanks to economies of scale; - offering a pan-European risk neutralisation solution. This scheme will be based on professional pension institutions (second pillar), but will also provide additional individual pension solutions (third pillar) for self-employed researchers.
This project, entitled RESAVER (Retirement Savings Vehicle), is still in its early stages. So far, its founder members consist of just seven institutes, universities and associations (Central European University Budapest; Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium; Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A; Fondazione Edmund Mach; Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia; Technical University of Vienna; the Association of Universities in the Netherlands).
However, the project is expected to grow quickly. At least, that was the hope voiced by the League of European Research Universities (LERU), which, although it “cannot commit its members in the legal construction that is being set up, will continue to inform its universities about RESAVER, encourage them to explore the possibility of joining RESAVER and support the ongoing discussions on the portability of social security rights”. (JK)