Analysis of scientific emigration under the Human Capital and Mobility programme
The European Commission, DG XII, has released the results of a study carried out on the individual fellowship scheme financed under the Community's Human Capital and Mobility (HCM) programme. The study, entitled "Scientific Emigration within the European Union - A Study of the Fellowships Applications in the Human Capital and Mobility Programme", reaches a number of interesting conclusions concerning the emigration of European scientists under the fellowship scheme: - France and the United Kingdom act as two separate poles of attraction: France acts as a major magnet for the "geographically central" countries of Europe, namely Belgium and Luxembourg, while the United Kingdom draws the "geographically marginal", namely Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Portugal; -The geographical "central belt", which includes Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, sees a more or less mutual exchange of fellows; - France and the United Kingdom also constitute the two largest and most important host centres, each accounting for some 30% of the host institutes; -The "middle sized" countries, which in this analysis are Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, each account for some 6-9% of the host institutes; - The "smaller countries", which are Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Portugal, each account for 1-2% of the host institutes; - Germany, relative to its size, has, at 0.5%, the least number of applications from scientists wishing to conduct research in another European country; - Applicants from Greece and Ireland, on the other hand, represented the highest proportion of researchers who wished to undertake research abroad at 8.3% and 6.3%, respectively. Several thousand scientists applied for fellowship support under the HCM programme (1992-1994). It was the first time the Commission had launched such a major activity. It provided researchers with grants to progress their research away from their home country and gave them the opportunity to join some of Europe's leading research centres. This activity is now being continued under the Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) programme which replaces the HCM programme. Ettore Marchetti, principal author of the study, has continued to monitor the situation and has been able to compare his findings with the emerging TMR Research Training Grant picture: "Obviously in terms of 'scientific emigration' within the EU, the 'clustering' found in the HCM programme can in part be explained by language and historical links. The migratory patterns observed in the HCM, indeed, seem to be repeating themselves in the current TMR programme. One striking confirmation of this fact is that following the EU's recent enlargement a strong 'Nordic cluster' has emerged". He added, however, that "such trends should not be seen as a limiting factor to the 'Europeanization' of research. On the contrary, they provide a structure that helps young researchers take advantage of the opportunities presented by undertaking research abroad. The TMR programme, thus, provides the flexibility to enable the researcher to go to best centre for their research be it found just across the border or located in a totally different part of Europe".