Checklist for new researchers

A practical checklist for onboarding a new lab member (intern, PhD student, postdoc, visitor). Items were consolidated after several real arrivals; not all apply to every status.

Administrative & HR (settle before, or on, the first day)

• Employment contract / internship convention signed by all parties before the first working day — without it the person is not covered.
• Security clearance (avis de sécurité), required for non-EU nationals — request it early: it can delay the start by several days to weeks and gates the badge request.
• Bank details (RIB) provided to the management team — no salary / gratification is paid without it.
• Public-transport subscription reimbursement (e.g. Navigo, 50 %).
• Leave and telework policy agreed explicitly (the amount of telework is often asked for in the end-of-stay evaluation).
• End of contract: attestation / certificate requested; evaluation form and report where applicable.

Mandatory trainings & compliance

• New-arrivals occupational-risk (safety) training.
• Confidentiality & information-asset charter.
• AI-systems acceptable-use charter.
• Occupational-health visit (médecine du travail).

General & team

• Welcome tour and introductions, including the management / HR team (the people to contact for everything below).
• Workspace setup: computer, monitor, ethernet, keyboard, docking station, office key.
• Badge, and the building-access hours and badge zones it actually opens (own wing and office, not just the main entrance).
• Printers access.
• Canteen / lunch-account activation.
• Login credentials and institutional email (mail client on the workstation and on the phone).
• Team & seminar mailing lists.
• Meeting & appointment dates; a recurring supervision slot.

Health & safety

• Evacuation routes, assembly point, floor wardens and first-aiders.

Tools

• Intranet / wiki.
• Internal GitLab / code-repository access.
• Instant-messaging application.
• LLM / AI assistants.
• HPC / compute-cluster access: account, SSH, and VPN for remote access.
• Data storage & backup (shared storage, quotas).

Campus life

• Sports facilities.
• Commute: public transport + shuttle, or bike.