EUROPE - The European Commission is seeking a contractor to conduct a feasibility study into the potential for developing a pan-European pension fund for researchers working across the EU.

The Commission published a document in May - 'Better careers and more mobility: a European Partnership for Researchers' - in which it focused on four key areas to make the EU more attractive to researchers than other countries such as the US and Japan.

These included "meeting the social security and supplementary pensions needs of mobile researchers", as it highlighted workers are increasingly reliant on supplementary pensions but claimed the current transfer and preservation conditions of these pension benefits are "often not well-suited for mobile workers such as researchers". (See earlier IPE article: EC eyes pan-European pensions for 'researchers')

Following these proposals to encourage companies to open pan-European pension schemes to allow manoeuvrability for researchers, the Commission is looking for a company to undertake a feasibility study of the implementation of such a scheme.

Under the terms of the contract, the successful applicant will be expected to study the legal, technical, and financial requirements for setting up a pan-European pension for researchers working in the EU.

In particular, the tender notice said study should be made of the existing legislation under the second pillar, such as the Directive on the activities of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP).

That said, the Commission also admitted life insurance based pension arrangements that could better fit researchers' needs for retirement provision would also be analysed by the organisation undertaking the study.
 
The contract, commissioned by the EC Directorate-General for Research, is valued at €300,000 and is expected to last for 11 months from the date the contract is awarded, although the chosen applicant must maintain the tender for at least six months.

The deadline for applications to conduct the study is 12 November 2008.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

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