The SECURE Research Career Framework (RCF) is a practical toolbox for research-performing organisations (RPOs) and research-funding organisations (RFOs) to reform research careers and help to reduce the precarity of researchers at their organisations. The RCF translates high-level recommendations of Council Recommendation C/2023/1640 on a European Framework to Attract and Retain Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Talents in Europe (2023) into concrete actions for RPOs and RFOs. The RCF targets all researchers from early-career to senior researchers and covers the full life-cycle of research careers including recruitment and selection, employment and orientation, professional development and mobility, and progression or eventual transition to a new research position or career. The RCF consists of a comprehensive suite of 80 actions across 8 thematic action areas focusing on strategy, stability, conditions, skills, mobility, assessment, pathways, and interoperability. The selection, prioritisation, and implementation of actions in the RCF is left to the RPOs and RFOs to tailor to their own strategic interests and needs.

This first version of the deliverable was reviewed by EC. The final version is available at:O'Neill, G. (2025). SECURE Deliverable 2.3 SECURE Research Career Framework. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16880406