Mobility matters : research training and network building in science

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.