Abstract
The growth of Brazilian scientific production in recent years is remarkable, which motivates an investigation on the factors, inside and outside the country, that helped shape this wealthy research environment. This article provides a thorough analysis of the education of researchers that constitute the main Brazilian research groups, using data on about 6,000 researchers involved in the country’s National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCT) initiative. Data on the steps taken by each researcher in her education, from the bachelor’s degree to doctorate, including a possible postdoctoral experience, and employment, are extracted from an official curriculum vitae repository. The location and the time at which each career step occurred define spatiotemporal career trajectories. We then analyze such trajectories considering additional data, including the area of knowledge of the INCTs to which each researcher is associated. We found an increasing prevalence of Brazilian institutions in the education of Brazilian scientists, as the number of doctorates earned abroad is decreasing over time. Postdoctoral stages, on the other hand, often take place in Europe or in the United States. Taking an international postdoctoral position after a full education in Brazil suggests a drive towards seeking higher-level exchange and cooperation with foreign groups in a more advanced career stage. Results also show that Brazilian researchers tend to seek employment in regions that are close to the institutions at which they received their bachelor’s degrees, suggesting low mobility within the country. This study can be instrumental in defining public policies for correcting distortions, and can help other developing countries that aim to improve their national science systems.
Highlights
The Brazilian scientific production has grown remarkably over the last 15 years [1], reaching an average annual growth rate of 10.7% [2]
Could brain drain be anyhow beneficial to the country that loses people? Song’s study about brain drain and brain gain in South Korea [12] shows that Koreans who live abroad or return to Korea after years in another country are helpful in creating international links, due to their enhanced experience
Having analyzed the PhD stage, in this subsection we focus on other stages in the education of the researchers, looking for subject-specific patterns of career trajectory
Summary
The Brazilian scientific production has grown remarkably over the last 15 years [1], reaching an average annual growth rate of 10.7% [2]. It is interesting to understand how this young scientific ecosystem evolved to produce such remarkable results in a short period, by analyzing the influences, outside and inside the country, that helped shape this currently wealthy research environment In this context, this article provides a thorough analysis of the education of the researchers who compose the main Brazilian research groups, observed from the perspective of their individual career trajectories. There exists a general idea, which, to our knowledge, mostly derives from anecdotal evidence rather than from scientific studies, that Brazilian researchers tend to stay close to their birthplaces, where their education started This pattern, supposedly related to social-cultural Latin traditions, differs from the behavior of many other regions in the world that have historically shown high mobility patterns [7, 8].
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