About us
Our mission
Tampere University is an international research university, and our community members come from over 80 countries. Through successful recruitment, we welcome researchers and staff from Finland and abroad. As we understand that relocation with a family requires a lot from the whole family, we wish to help the relocation decision by providing services not only to those recruited, but also to the accompanying spouses.
Hidden Gems’ activities and peer groups aim to facilitate networking, professional growth and integration of spouses into Finnish society. Our Hidden Gems team aims to ensure that spouses are recognised and able to build social networks, improve language skills and establish a social identity in Finland as a key for talent attraction and retention within Tampere region.
Our vision
In today’s world up to 80 percent of researchers and international talents relocate with their families. Research tells us that the number one reason for international assignment decline or failure is due to the unhappiness of a spouse.
When relocating, spouses often have to leave behind their careers. In the new country, they fall off the radar of organisational support, while they also need career care. Despite their qualifications, spouses may have to wait for years before getting the opportunity to restart their careers. In order to attract and retain researchers and other highly skilled talents we need to support the spouses, too!
Our strategy
Researcher mobility is a fundamental element of academia. It has a major role in establishing networks and promoting scientific collaboration between Europe and the world. Researcher mobility supports the University’s pursuit of attracting and retaining the best scientific minds and young talents. Often researchers relocate with their families. In this context, providing support and care for their accompanying family members, spouses, is aligned with the University’s commitment to developing and maintaining a supportive research environment and working culture for its researchers and staff.
As a demonstration of our aim for better working conditions for researchers and our commitment to the European Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R), the University has been granted the HR Excellence in Research award by the Commission. Moreover, the University is one of the service centres and the current national coordinator of the pan-European initiative EURAXESS – Researchers in Motion, which delivers information and support services to professional researchers and their families.
Our history and funding
Hidden Gems Finland, an initiative by Tampere University and coordinated by our Human Resources Services, began as an in-house spouse programme co-funded by the European Social Fund in 03/2018-02/2020. Initially supporting the spouses of our university researchers, the programme has since expanded to include other spouses who have relocated to Tampere. Since 2020, the University has continued to develop the spouse programme in alignment with the HRS4R and EURAXESS commitments, and it has become a permanent part of what we do.