Human Resource in Science and Technology

The phrase ‘Human Resources in Science and Technology’ (HRST) has been coined in the ‘Canberra Manual’ of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in order to identify and to measure for statistical purposes the special skilled labour force required by the rapid change and new challenges that are emerging in science and technology. According to the Manual, HRST may refer to ‘human resources actually or potentially devoted to the systematic generation, advancement, diffusion and application of scientific and technological knowledge’. Researchers and, in general, HRST represent an important share of employees within Europe and in the last twenty years, the phenomenon of the mobility of researchers and other HRST has dramatically increased because of the EU integration process and specific actions put in place by the EU, such as the Framework Programmes and, in particular, the Marie Skłodowska Curie actions, which are specifically focused on the mobility of researchers. EU sources recognise that researchers and HRST have a particular position, introducing a specific understanding of the EU freedoms. As matter of fact, EU legal sources identified ‘freedom of knowledge’ as the ‘fifth freedom’. In addition to freedom of circulation, EU law identifies several rights concerning HRST, as well as a set of obbligations.