Seven research companies and universities have been named founding members for a new pan-European pension fund for researchers.
The new cross-border pension fund — the Retirement Savings Vehicle for European Research Institutions, known as RESAVER — will allow researchers to move around Europe and jobs without changing pension funds.
The consortium of seven founding members plans to launch the fund next year, according to a statement published on the European Commission's website. The EC will cover setup costs via a four-year framework contract. That contract will be awarded by the end of this year.
“We have worked hard to boost the free movement of knowledge in Europe,” said Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, European commissioner for research, innovation and science, in the statement. “Pensions are a serious barrier to free movement, but today that barrier has begun to crumble. I strongly encourage research organizations across Europe to join the consortium.”
The founding members, which will work as an international not-for-profit association, are Central European University Budapest; Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium; Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste SCpA; Fondazione Edmund Mach; Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia; Technical University of Vienna; and the Association of Universities in the Netherlands.
A spokesman for the EC could not be reached for comment by press time.
