Louise Ackers and
Bryony Gill
Attracting and Retaining ‘Early Career’ Researchers in English Higher Education Institutions
Abstract
English
universities are renowned for their tradition of producing
world-class research. However, maintaining this competitive
advantage relies on the continued supply of capable researchers
and their ongoing retention and progression within the university
system. Some of the most salient challenges to the continued
success of English universities are mass expansion, an ageing
academic demographic, women failing to progress equally, and an
increasingly international research labour market. In response to
these challenges, this article questions whether English
universities are facing an imminent ‘problem’ in their ability
to produce and retain the next generation of researchers.
Particular emphasis is given to understanding whether the UK's
reliance on international recruitment could be both a cause of,
and a solution to, domestic skills shortages.
Louise Ackers
Promoting Scientific Mobility and Balanced Growth in the European Research Area
Abstract
This paper focuses on
the issue of scientific mobility within the European Research Area
(ERA) and its impact on both the regions concerned and the
individual scientists. It identifies a fundamental tension
implicit within the ERA strategy between regional equality or
‘balanced growth’ on the one hand, and individual equity on
the other. Drawing on the findings of a series of recent research
projects,1 and with a particular focus on an impact assessment of
the European Commission's flagship scientific mobility scheme (the
Marie Curie Fellowship Scheme), it considers the nature of
scientific mobility in the EU context and the quality of flows.
These findings are set within the wider literature around highly
skilled migration (HSM) and brain drain/circulation which
identifies a number of key variables shaping the impact of
mobility: namely the direction and temporal characteristics of
flows and their ‘quality’ in terms of who is moving. It also
considers the relationship between HSM and transfers of knowledge.
Although knowledge is embedded in individual scientists—and, to
that extent, moves with them—the process of knowledge transfer
takes place in a variety of ways reflecting not only scientists’
employment location but also the quality and extent of their
networks and connections. The paper cautions against simplistic
interpretations of statistics based on the volume and geography of
migration flows. Whilst such findings raise important questions
they are not constitutive of ‘brain drain’ as such. The
processes and impacts of HSM defy such simple conclusions and
demand a more detailed analysis of the factors shaping migration
(and return) and the relationship between these and transfers of
knowledge. The paper also raises critical questions about the
balance between European interests (and the economic ‘trickle
down’ that derives from these to Member States) and the specific
concerns in terms of the science base of individual Member States.
Bryony Gill
Homeward Bound?: The experience of return mobility for Italian scientists
Abstract
In recent
years, the EU has taken steps to promote European researcher
mobility (European Commission, 2001ab). Despite increased
attention to highly skilled mobility in research and policy
circles, its corollary—return mobility—has been relatively
sidelined. However, return mobility is essential for the promotion
of balanced growth in an enlarging Europe since ‘the personal
networks of the returned researcher are conduits for other student
and researcher flows as well as new research and finance’ (Casey
et al., 2001, p. 6). Nonetheless, it has been acknowledged that
after a period abroad mobile researchers can potentially become
‘locked out’ of their home country or ‘locked into’ the
host country. Using empirical data from the MOBEX1 study, this
article attempts to explain some of the complex processes involved
in scientific return mobility. It details the kinds of barriers
that exist to returnees and contemplates the consequences of
non-return for science communities. The article also reports on
the Italian scientists’ call for their national system to change:
in the interviews they appealed for a more international
environment, for greater opportunities for researchers, for
experience abroad to be valued and for more meritocratic
progression channels to stimulate return.
Debbie Millard
The Impact of Clustering on Scientific Mobility: A Case Study of the UK
Abstract
This article discusses
the mobility of scientific researchers in the EU within the
context of the clustering of science and R&D in particular
geographical areas. Reporting on a case study of Italian
researchers who moved to the UK, it considers the location
decisions of this group of researchers based on the clustering of
R&D in Europe and in the UK. The results point to the
importance of prestige and networks in determining location
decisions and these factors give established research centres an
important advantage over smaller, developing ones.
Helen Stalford
Parenting, Care and Mobility in the EU: Issues facing migrant scientists
Abstract
This
article explores the tensions between migration, career
progression and parental responsibility in the EU. It considers
how female scientists, whose career progression is so often
contingent on their obtaining international experience, negotiate
their work and family life in a ‘foreign’ Member State.
Focusing on the specific issue of child care, the paper
illustrates the limitations of EU equality initiatives in enabling
women to effectively balance the demands of full-time scientific
research with their domestic responsibilities. A widespread lack
of accessible and affordable child care across the Member States,
coupled with the common dislocation from informal support networks
that inevitably occurs as a result of migration, means that women
are, more often than not, unable to fully enjoy the benefits of
both professional and domestic life simultaneously. Rather, they
are faced with the unenviable choice between giving up or reducing
the amount they work, delaying motherhood or giving up the
opportunity to migrate altogether. This raises important concerns
not only for women themselves, whose dilemma remains unresolved by
the extensive body of EU law and policy in this area, but for the
scientific sector which has yet to find an appropriate strategy to
curb the relentless leak of female talent.
