Context/background of the projectIn the light of the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda's key policy issues providing guidance to Member States and HEIs on how to support modernisation efforts of HEIs in order to maximise the contribution of the higher education sector to Europe’s growth and jobs. The Modernisation Agenda states that enabling better working conditions including transparent and fair recruitment procedures, introduction of incentives for HEIs to invest in continuous professional development for their staff, and better recognition and reward of teaching and research excellence is essential to ensure that Europe produces, attracts and retains the highly competent and motivated academic staff it needs. Thus adapting internal quality assurance mechanisms at the HEIs to include evidence-based human resource management processes would contribute to the efficiency of the governance of the HEIs which will help them to fulfil their role in society and contribute to Europe's prosperity. ObjectivesObjectives of the project are aligned with the following horizontal (sectoral) priorities of the Erasmus + programme in 2016:Supporting the implementation of reforms in line with the 2011 EUStrengthening the recruitment, selection and induction of EducatorsSustainable investment, performance and efficiency in education and trainingIn the light of the mentioned policy priorities at the European level, the project has aimed to achieve four general objectives: • To improve the organizational development, efficiency and effectiveness of HEIs as well as to increase its global competitiveness. •To encourage and improve Higher Education Institution’s contribution to economic growth and social development by enhancing the quality and relevance of human capital development in higher education. • To stimulate excellence of European HEIs staff through appropriate academic human resources management. The benchmarking tool constructed as an Open Educational Resource (OER) will enable European HEIs to use it as a mean of continuous improvement of their HRM system and increase of their competitive ability. • To foster further development of EHEA by adding to existing communication channels and mutual exchange of sound practices. Number and profile of participating organisationsThe project has been carried out by five partner organization from three countries – Croatia, Austrian and Finland. The choice of academic partners from three countries was motivated by their significant role in the international and national higher education systems and in policy or strategic developments (Danube University Krems, Austria and University of Tampere, School of Management, Finland, both of which are providers of Master’s Degree Programme in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE)) and by the criterion of substantial expertise in the field of HRM as well as international project-based experience and good practice (Croatian partners - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of University of Rijeka and Algebra University College).Description of undertaken main activitiesThe main project activities have been grouped into 5 working packages (WP) as will be explained in detail in section 5.1Results and impact attainedThe project have achieved immediate impact on the project partners and participants from other HEIs as its target group in terms of enhanced awareness of the significance of the HRM function for the internal quality system of the HEIs, which is also a requirement of the Part 1 of the ESG standards. At the system level an increase of the understanding the importance of human resource management in HEIs has been observed in all three countries during multiplier events as well as following the events as a number of HEIs informed the ASHE to have institutionalized a function of vice dean for human resources. Also, the results of the project our complementary to the policy measure Program financing of public higher education institutions in 2018/2019. - 2021./2022. instituted by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education with the aim of achieving a result-based funding of teaching, scientific and artistic activities. Furthermore, creation of benchmark tool that enables all HEIs to evaluate their HRM processes has been widely disseminated among HEIs and the results collected will be a source of evidence-based position for developing policy measures at both institutional and sectoral level.