EU urged to avoid ‘immense’ burden to researcher mobility

Planned changes to EU labour rules threaten to hamper efforts to improve researcher mobility, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations has warned.

Earto’s president Frank Treppe wrote to the European Commission on 13 March to warn that several EU initiatives could hinder efforts to improve mobility “if not treated carefully”.

The EU must make it clear that short business trips should be exempted from the need to apply for certain mobility permissions, Treppe said. Research organisations already face an “immense administrative burden” when researchers make business trips to other member states, he said.