Mobility Matters: Research Training and Network Building in Science

Abstract

Technology transfer and human-capital mobility are integral to processes of capacity building that lead to economic and social development. Scientific mobility through institutional channels is argued to be a process in which scientists and engineers can accumulate scientific capitals. This essay reviews the importance of foreign research degrees and postdoctoral positions in the formation of human-capital and social-capital networks. The empirical focus is on six large economies in the Asia-Pacific region, drawing on data from an exploratory survey of scientists publishing in journals indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI). Mobility for research degrees and postdoctoral research is a significant contributor to the formation of scientific and technical human capital, which has been an important driver in economic expansion and social development in the Asia-Pacific region. The results suggest that destinations for postdoctoral positions are more important than destinations for research degrees in the formation of durable social-capital networks. In particular, there appears to a relatively strong relationship between host destinations for postdoctoral-research training and the organization of transnational research collaborations. This finding could have implications for the capacity of developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region to link and integrate into the emerging knowledge hubs within the region.