Research network propagation: The impact of PhD students’ temporary international mobility

Abstract

As the global mobility of researchers increases, many of whom are supported by national funding agencies’ mobility schemes, there is growing interest in understanding the impact of this overseas mobility on knowledge production and networking. This study addresses a relatively understudied mobility—the temporary international mobility of PhD students in STEM fields—and its relation to the establishment of research collaborations between mobile PhD students and researchers at the host university and with other researchers overseas. First, we find that 55% of the participants established relevant international collaborations (i.e., with hosting supervisors and/or others at the hosting university), and we explore these collaboration patterns in detail by taking a novel research propagation approach. Second, we identify features of the visiting period that influence the formation of research collaborations abroad, such as the prestige of the host university, the duration of the international mobility period, the cultural distance, and the number of peer PhD students at the host university. Previous research collaborations between the home and host supervisors are also found to play a crucial role in research collaboration development. Age at the time of mobility is not found to be particularly relevant. We find that female PhD students are less able to benefit from collaborative research efforts than male students. These findings advance the knowledge of global research networks and provide important insights for research funding agencies aiming to promote international research mobility at the doctoral level.