Scientific mobility and international research networks: trends and policy tools for promoting research excellence and capacity building

TLDR

Globalization is increasingly shaping higher education and research through scientific mobility, yet this mobility can concentrate scarce scientific labor toward central hubs. The article reviews current trends and policy tools to promote scientific mobility. Scientific mobility is essential for building capacity and world‑class excellence, enabling emerging economies to gain advantage through international research networks and allowing modest‑resource countries to achieve excellence via networked researchers supported by advanced communication and infrastructure. Keywords: globalization, mobility, research, higher education.

Abstract

Abstract One of the ways in which globalization is manifesting itself in higher education and research is through the increasing importance and emphasis on scientific mobility. This article seeks to provide an overview and analysis of current trends and policy tools for promoting mobility. The article argues that the mobility of scientific labour is an indispensable prerequisite for building capacity and world-class excellence. Many of the newly emerging economies have been able to leverage themselves to advantageous positions in the global scientific economy through the skilful deployment of international research networks. Mobility is still a mixed blessing since scientific labour, like other scarce resources, has a tendency to cluster towards the centre. However, given advances in communication technology and the presence of good research infrastructure, a core group of networked researchers can go a long way towards helping a country with modest scientific resources achieve world-class excellence. Keywords: globalizationmobilityresearchhigher education