Finding balance in global relationships: roles of scientific collaboration and mobility in building ties across countries

The overarching goal of this project is to identify the convergence or discrepancy of countries in mobility and collaboration patterns; and to determine the relative positions and influence of countries in both processes. We aim at informing on the position of countries with regard to mobility and collaboration and improving our understanding on the relationship between scientific mobility and collaboration within the context of scientific and economic capacities. Scientific collaboration and mobility can be viewed as a communications network (Wagner and Leydesdorff, 2005). Using these data as parts of a network structure, we can test whether the structural analysis of their differences and similarities provides an alternative view to better understand the dynamics and intensity of knowledge and human flow. Governments are becoming increasingly concerned with occupying an advantageous position in the global scientific market (Jacob and Meek, 2013).