1.6.2018

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CA 187/6

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Publication of a vacancy for a Director function of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), Budapest

(Temporary agent — Grade AD 14)

COM/2018/20026

(2018/C 187 A/02)

 

We are

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) (1) is an EU body which aims to be a flagship for excellence in European innovation. The EIT currently provides grants to six Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) and two more will be set up in 2018. The EIT budget between 2014 and 2020 amounts to EUR 2,3 billion and the KICs should leverage additional funding from European Union, national and private sources of more than EUR 7,5 billion.

The EIT is the first European initiative to foster European innovation by fully integrating the three sides of the ‘Knowledge Triangle’ (higher education, research, business and innovation) in the KICs. Fostering entrepreneurship is a key focus for the EIT and the KICs, as the key driver of innovation and as the ‘glue’ in the Knowledge Triangle. EIT seeks to stand out as a world-class innovation Institute, inspiring and driving change in existing European universities, research institutions and businesses, both new and established, spanning SMEs to large multinationals.

Conceived with a clear market-driven focus, the EIT acts as a catalyst for sustainable economic growth and job creation throughout the Union by generating new skills, products, services and business responding to public demand and to the needs of the knowledge economy. One important objective of the EIT is to act as a role model for promoting new systemic approaches to innovation.

The EIT’s strategic management is coordinated and decided by a Governing Board consisting of recognised European innovation leaders from the knowledge triangle.

The KICs are highly integrated public-private networks of universities, research organisations, entrepreneurs and businesses. Direct involvement of business stakeholders, including SMEs and foundations, in all strategic, operational and financial aspects of the EIT is the cornerstone of the initiative.

The EIT has an annual budget of approximately 450 million euros and has around 70 members of staff.

The EIT headquarters are in Budapest. For further information please consult the website: http://eit.europa.eu

We propose

The Director is responsible for operations and for the day-to-day management of the EIT and is its legal representative. The Director is accountable to the Governing Board and reports to it on an ongoing basis on the development of the EIT activities. In particular, the Director will:

(a)	organise and manage the activities of the EIT;

(b)	support the Governing Board and the Executive Committee in their work, provide the secretariat for their meetings and supply all information necessary for the performance of their duties;

(c)	prepare a draft Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA), a preliminary rolling triennial work programme, the draft annual report and the draft annual budget for submission to the Governing Board;

(d)	prepare and administer the KICs selection process and ensure that the various stages of that process are carried out in a transparent and objective manner;

(e)	prepare, negotiate and conclude contractual agreements with the KICs;

(f)	organise the Stakeholder Forum, including the special configuration of Member States’ representatives;

(g)

ensure the implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation procedures relating to the performance of the EIT in accordance with the institute’s obligation to ensure that its activities are subject to continuous and systematic monitoring and periodic independent evaluation as described in Article 16 of the EIT Regulation;

(h)	be responsible for administrative and financial matters, including the implementation of the EIT budget, taking due account of advice received from the Internal Auditing Function;

(i)	be responsible for all staff matters;

(j)	submit the draft annual accounts and balance sheet to the Internal Auditing Function, and subsequently to the Governing Board, through the Executive Committee;

(k)	ensure that the obligations of the EIT with regard to the contracts and agreements it has concluded are met;

(l)	ensure effective communication with the European Union’s institutions;

(m)	act in the interests of the EIT, safeguarding its goals and mission, identity, autonomy and coherence, in an independent and transparent way.

Candidates must (‘eligibility criteria’):

Candidates will be considered for the selection phase on the basis of the following formal criteria to be fulfilled by the closing date for applications:

—	Nationality: be a national of a Member State of the European Union,

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University degree or diploma: Candidates must have either: — a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more, or — a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years (this 1 year’s professional experience cannot be included in the postgraduate professional experience required below),

—	Professional experience: have at least 15 years’ post-graduate experience at a level to which the qualifications referred to above give admission. At least 5 years must have been acquired in activities related to the domains of the EIT: innovation, research, business and/or higher education,

—	Management experience: candidates must prove that at least 5 years of their experience have been acquired directly managing staff and budgets or working in management structures at a sufficiently high level of responsibility (2),

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Languages: candidates must have a thorough knowledge of one of the official European Union languages (3) and a satisfactory knowledge of a second of these languages to the extent necessary for the performance of his/her duties. Selection panels will verify during the interview(s) whether candidates comply with the requirement of a satisfactory knowledge of another official EU language. This may include part of the interview being conducted in this other language,

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Age limit: candidates must be able to complete, at the deadline for application, the full mandate of 4 years before reaching the retirement age. For temporary staff of the European Union, the retirement age is defined as being the end of the month in which the person reaches the age of 66 years (see Article 47 of the Conditions of Employment of other Servants of the European Union (4)),

—	In addition, candidates have to have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the laws concerning military service; produce the appropriate character references as to their suitability for the performance of their duties and be physically fit to perform their duties.

We look for (‘selection criteria’):

The ideal candidate should have:

A.	Very good analytical and organisational skills as well as the capacity to develop longer-term strategies, and be able to manage a large European or International Body, both at strategic and operational level;

B.	Good knowledge and understanding of the EU Institutions and how they operate and interact;

C.	Proven experience of budgetary, financial and human resources management in a European or international context;

D.	Proven experience in policy and practice relevant to higher education, research, business or innovation and experience of leadership in one of these areas;

E.	Excellent written and oral communication skills as well as strong negotiation skills. In particular, the ability to communicate to the public and cooperate effectively and efficiently with all stakeholders (European, international, national and local authorities, international organisations, etc.);

F.	The ability to lead and motivate a large team in a European, multicultural and multilingual environment, including the capacity to set and communicate objectives, prioritise tasks and to ensure their execution;

G.	Good understanding of EU policies, procedures and international activities of relevance to the activities of the EIT;

H.	A very good command of English — the working language of EIT — would be an additional asset.

Independence and declaration of interests

Before taking up his/her duties, the Director will be required to make a declaration of commitment to act independently in the public interest and to declare any interests which might be considered prejudicial to his/her independence.

Selection and appointment

The Director will be appointed by the Governing Board of the EIT on a shortlist from the European Commission.

The European Commission organises the selection in accordance with its selection and recruitment procedures (see also the Document on Senior Officials Policy (5)). To this end, it will set up a preselection panel. This panel analyses all applications and identifies a number of candidates who have the best profile in view of the selection criteria mentioned above. These candidates may be invited for an interview with the preselection panel.

Following these interviews, the preselection panel will draw up its conclusions and propose a list of candidates for further interviews with the European Commission’s Consultative Committee on Appointments (CCA). The CCA, taking into consideration the conclusions of the preselection panel, will decide on the candidates to be invited for an interview.

Candidates called for an interview with the CCA will participate in a full-day management assessment centre run by external recruitment consultants. Taking account of the results of the interview and the report of the assessment centre, the CCA will establish a shortlist of candidates it considers suitable to exercise the function of Director.

Candidates who are shortlisted by the CCA will be interviewed by the relevant Commissioner(s).

Following these interviews, the European Commission adopts a shortlist of the most suitable candidates, which will be communicated to the EIT Governing Board. Inclusion on the European Commission’s shortlist does not guarantee appointment.

Candidates will then be interviewed by the EIT Governing Board. The latter will appoint the Director from among the candidates shortlisted.

For functional reasons and in order to complete the selection procedure as quickly as possible in the interest of the candidates as well as that of the institution, the selection procedure will be carried out in English and/or French only (6).

Equal opportunities

The European Commission and the EIT apply a policy of equal opportunities and non-discrimination in accordance with Article 1d of the Staff Regulations (7).

Conditions of employment

The Director will be appointed as a temporary agent at grade AD 14 pursuant to Article 2(a) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (8) for a 4-year period, which may be extended once, as stated in the EIT Regulation.

Candidates should note the requirement under the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants for all new staff to successfully complete a 9-month probationary period.

The place of employment is Budapest (Hungary), where the EIT is based.

Application procedure

Before submitting your application, you should carefully check whether you meet all the eligibility criteria (‘Candidates must’), particularly concerning the required types of diploma and professional experience as well as your linguistic capacity. Failure to meet any of the eligibility requirements means an automatic exclusion from the selection procedure.

If you want to apply, you must register via the internet by going to the website and follow the instructions there concerning the various stages of the procedure:

https://ec.europa.eu/dgs/human-resources/seniormanagementvacancies/

You must have a valid email address. This will be used to identify your registration as well as to remain in contact with you during the different stage of the selection process. Therefore, please keep the European Commission informed of any change in your email address.

To complete your application, you will need to upload a CV in PDF format and to fill out, online, a letter of motivation (maximum 8 000 characters).

Once you have finished your online registration, you will receive an electronic mail confirming that your application has been registered. This mail also contains a registration number which will be your reference number in all matters concerning your application. If you do not receive a confirmation email, your application has not been registered!

Please note that it is not possible to monitor the progress of your application online. You will be contacted directly by the European Commission regarding the status of your application.

If you require more information and/or encounter technical problems, please send an email to: HR-MANAGEMENT-ONLINE@ec.europa.eu

Closing date

The closing date for registration is 29 June 2018, 12.00 noon Brussels time, after which online registration will no longer be possible.

It is your responsibility to complete your online registration in time. We strongly advise you not to wait until the last few days before applying, since heavy internet traffic or a fault with your internet connection could lead to the online registration being terminated before you complete it, thereby obliging you to repeat the whole process. Once the deadline for registration has passed, you will no longer be able to introduce any data. Late registrations are not accepted.

Important information for candidates

Candidates are reminded that the work of the selection committees is confidential. It is forbidden for candidates to make direct or indirect contact with members of these committees, or for anybody to do so on their behalf.

Protection of personal data

The European Commission and EIT will ensure that candidates’ personal data are processed as required by Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. This applies in particular to the confidentiality and security of such data (9).

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(1)  Regulation (EC) No 294/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008 establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (OJ L 97, 9.4.2008, p. 1), amended by Regulation (EU) No 1292/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013.

(2)  In their CVs candidates should indicate at least for these 5 years during which sufficiently high level management experience has been acquired inter alia: (1) title and role of management positions held, (2) numbers of staff overseen in these positions, (3) the size of budgets managed, and (4) numbers of hierarchical layers above and below and number of peers.

(3)  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:01958R0001-20130701&qid=1408533709461&from=EN

(4)  http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1962R0031:20140101:EN:PDF

(5)  https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/compilation-of-the-senior-official-policy-at-the-european-commission_en.pdf

(6)  The selection panel will ensure that no undue advantage is given to native speakers of these languages.

(7)  Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, p. 12.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1962R0031:20140101:EN:PDF

(8)  Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, p. 187.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1962R0031:20140101:EN:PDF

(9)  OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1.

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