Modelling the mobility of researchers

Johan Hauknes

No 199409, STEP Report series from The STEP Group, Studies in technology, innovation and economic policy

Abstract: Policies aimed at the mobility of researchers are an increasingly important element of science, technology and innovation policies. Perhaps the most visible indicator of this is the fact that ";Training and mobility of researchers"; is the most rapidly growing programme in the European Commission's FRAMEWORK Programme, with a 1994-98 budget of nearly 800 million ecu; this emphasis is also reflected in some national programmes. Interest in researcher mobility should be understood within the context of policies aimed at strengthening the effects of research-based knowledge. Mobility is considered important as a consequence of a growing recognition by policy makers that the use of research-based knowledge requires not only access to documented or codified knowledge, but also to tacit knowledges and skills. These tacit skills - uncodified, historically developed and usually localised - are in part a matter of knowing how to interpret, evaluate and transform codified knowledge to forms and contexts facilitating use. Thus the movement of researchers between institutions - and in particular from publicly-supported research insititutions to companies - is a way of enhancing scientific or technological competence which goes considerably further than simply ensuring that companies have access to formal and codified scientific knowledge. However mobility has a dual aspect. If it enhances the capabilities of recipient institutions, then presumably it has also some inhibiting impact on the 'delivering' institution. This might be particularly the case if research-based knowledge is produced not by individuals but by teams in which interactive learning and collective knowledge-creation is taking place: mobility will disrupt team activities, and thus the effects of mobility will take the form of a more or less complex trade-off between positive benefits accruing to a recipient institution, and negative impacts on the team from which the mobile researcher comes. This paper is in large part an exploration of this trade-off.

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