MOMO -
Human Resources in Research & Development: Monitoring System on Career Paths and Mobility Flows

Laufzeit/Duration:			2004-2006
Projektbeteiligte/Researchers:			Kerstin Lenecke Harald Schomburg Ulrich Teichler
Ansprechpartner/contact:			Harald Schomburg Tel: (49) (0) 5 61 804 – 2422 m@il

The objective of the MOMO-project was to collect and to analyse data sources and data banks on migration flows and career paths of academics and private sector personnel in selected countries of the European Union. This implies international mobility as well as mobility within and across sectors and regions. Primarily, the project's intention was to contribute to the identification of the requirements and framework conditions for the setting-up of a permanent monitoring function of researchers' career paths and mobility flows in Europe. Therefore, priority was laid on the collection and mapping of official data sources, academic surveys, studies etc. to define methodological and methodical approaches and to identify gaps in the existing data. In a second step a SPECIFIC ANALISYS analysed mobility flows (sectoral and geographical) and trends based on the existing data. Country studies were carried out in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic.
The project was funded by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Background

Not only since the Lisbon summit, it is widely known that the Economic development in Europe is increasingly knowledge based and requires highly qualified academics and R&D personnel. Inside Europe, the different political financing on R&D and innovation as well as different working conditions and access to academic career, lead to an increasing migration of academics and R&D personnel to countries outside and inside of the European countries with more attractive conditions. This migration is meant when the political-academic debate revolves around terms such as Brain Drain, Brain Gain or Brain Circulation. Deeper understanding of the career paths and mobility of researchers and R&D personnel will be necessary to better understand the migration and mobility flows in Europe.

Research Questions were

• What are the Centres of Expertise dealing with these topics in the examined European countries?
• What kind of data, surveys and study results about these topics is available about and in the examined European countries?
• What are the relevant science policy issues for these topics in the examined countries? What are methodological and methodical approaches of these data material and what is the degree of harmonisation?
• What are the gaps in the existing data and which are the open research question regarding these topics?
• What are the necessary conditions for ensuring harmonization of future data registration and for the establishment of an permanent European Monitoring system?

Project Partners

Czech Republic - VBS	Jaromir Gottvald	Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Economics
France - LEST	Isabelle Recotillet	Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail
Germany - UNIK	Harald Schomburg,	Centre for Research on Higher Education and Work, University of Kassel
Ireland - CIRCA	Thomas Casey	CIRCA Group Europe
Italy - IRPPS	Sveva Avveduto	Institute of Research on Population and Social Policies
Netherlands - CHEPS	Jürgen Enders	University of Twente (CHEPS)
Netherlands - MERIT	Wendy Hansen	University of Maastricht
Norway - NIFU STEP	Lars Nerdrum	Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education - Centre for Innovation Research
Poland - OBM	Ewa Giermanowska	Centre of Research for Youth - Warsaw University
Spain - URJC:	Carolina Cañibano	Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Sweden - SISTER:	Enrico Deiaco	Institute for Studies in Education and Research
United Kingdom - IES	Richard Pearson	Institute for Employment Studies