Masaryk University’s Faculty of Social Studies is a proud recipient of the HR Award
Our faculty has received the HR Award certification. The award is presented by the European Commission to research institutions that make a concerted effort to create an international and transparent working environment in tune with international trends in science (HRS4R).

The Faculty of Social Studies is the first social science faculty in the Czech Republic to receive the HR Award certificate and we are one of the seven newly awarded faculties of Masaryk University after the Faculty of Science and CEITEC. We have joined the community of 594 organizations that have been internationally recognized for HR Excellence in Research.
This European Certificate of HR Excellence in Research is awarded by the Commission to research institutions that are committed to increasing the prestige and attractiveness for researchers internationally. Thanks to the HR strategy HRS4R we want to improve the quality and care for our staff at FSS and thus create conditions for everyone who participates in excellent research in the social sciences. In this way, we also want to attract more foreign researchers.
The HR strategy is based on the 40 principles of The European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers that focus on ethics in research, open recruitment, appropriate working conditions, and the professional development of employees. The specific activities that the FSS has committed to over the next two years can be found in the Action Plan of the faculty and in the Gantt chart. Three activities from the Action Plan will be implemented over five years.
This is how the whole process of obtaining the certificate went:
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INITIAL PHASE:
December 2019:
The application letter to the European Commission was sent and an HR Award working group was established -
March/April 2020
A questionnaire survey administered among the staff
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August/September 2020
Three focus groups on the topic of discrimination were conducted
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December 2020
Action Plan, GAP analysis, OTR-R checklist were uploaded to the EURAXESS portal. All documents were approved by the steering committee.
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IMPLEMENTATION PHASE 2021-2023
April 2021:
The HR Award certificate was received. The project working group begins to implement the Action Plan. -
April 2023-2026
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RENEWAL PHASE
May 2026:
External assessment by the European Commission with the visit of the assessors at the faculty, renewal HR Award granting.
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