NWB2023_Researchers’ mobility in Nordic countries

Using publication data between 2012 and 2021, this work examines the institutional and geographic mobility of researchers initially affiliated with a Nordic institution in 2012. Data are retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) and contain information for more than 70,000 researchers. More than four fifths (84%) of these authors have multiple institutional affiliations, while more than half (56%) added a new institution to their initial affiliation list. Roughly 37% of Nordic authors have more than one affiliated country, while 29% added new a country affiliation after 2012. Furthermore, researchers from all Nordic countries tend to gradually leave their initial affiliated country as their career progresses. Iceland has the greatest drain of researchers. It is the only Nordic country where less than 70% of its authors remained affiliated with an Icelandic institution in 2021. USA, UK and Germany are in the top tier of foreign affiliated countries of Nordic researchers. At the same time, many Nordic researchers are affiliated with other Nordic countries. Sweden stands out as an important mobility destination for authors from other Nordic countries. Sweden is in the top three mobility destinations for all other Nordic countries except for Denmark. In terms of institution affiliation types (i.e., academic, government, corporate), there were no significant shifts of authors from one affiliation type to another when comparing distributions in 2012 and 2021.