ReICO structures its analysis around three interconnected themes that together capture the full lifecycle of research and innovation talent. By addressing these themes together, ReICO provides a comprehensive picture of how talent flows into, through, and across the R&I landscape, informing policies that support sustainable and dynamic career paths.
Themes
R&I talent development
This theme focuses on how individuals acquire the competences needed to pursue R&I careers. It explores education, training, and the contextual conditions that shape the development and preparation of R&I talent.
R&I labour market
This theme examines how R&I talent is integrated and sustained in the workforce. It highlights employment patterns, working conditions, and the alignment between individuals’ skills and labour market needs.
R&I talent circulation
This theme addresses the movement and mobility of R&I talent across institutions, sectors, and borders. It explores career trajectories, transitions, and how talent circulation contributes to dynamic and interconnected innovation systems.
Developing research and innovation talent
Indicators of R&I talent development provide a forward-looking perspective on the future research and innovation workforce. These indicators include data on participation across education levels, skills development within and beyond formal education, youth aspirations for advanced qualifications and R&I careers, as well as engagement in personal and professional development and lifelong learning. Such information is particularly valuable for bridging gaps between education, skills, research, and innovation policies.
Next generation for research and innovation careers
The future of research and innovation depends not only on developing and nurturing talent from an early age, but also on presenting R&I careers as attractive and accessible, challenging stereotypes that may discourage participation.
Skills development during the early stages of education lays the foundation for advanced learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving; competencies essential to knowledge-based economies.
While investment in quality education helps build the next generation of researchers and innovators, many promising R&I careers may never materialise if young people do not see these paths as relevant or attainable. In many countries, students’ interest in becoming science and engineering professionals has been declining. It is therefore important to monitor both capabilities and aspirations, as well as the social norms that influence career decisions across different population groups.
Advanced qualifications and doctoral education
Advanced qualifications across all fields contribute to developing the high-level knowledge and competences needed to address complex challenges and societal needs. While not the only pathway into R&D careers, doctoral education plays a central role in R&I talent development systems, as it explicitly prepares and accredits individuals to conduct and manage research. Doctorate credentials are often required not only for academic positions but also in other sectors.
Indicators of enrolment in, and graduation from, doctoral programmes are valuable for assessing how individuals perceive the attractiveness of research careers, particularly in fields such as STEM, compared with other educational or career options. These indicators are also critical for planning the future R&I workforce and for managing public investment in doctoral training programmes.
Adult skills and competences relevant for R&I
Developing R&I talent is a lifelong learning challenge that extends to adults of all ages. Rapid scientific and technological change can render existing skills obsolete and demands continuous investment in new competences. Strong problem-solving abilities, critical thinking, and digital literacy are essential for enabling the R&I workforce to address complex challenges, drive innovation, and contribute to knowledge creation.
Indicators of adult proficiency in selected skills, as well as those related to ongoing skill acquisition, help monitor the extent and direction of R&I talent development. Statistical frameworks used to assess skills in the general population can also provide valuable insights for R&I professionals. However, the specific demands of advanced R&I activities may require targeted measurement efforts; for example, assessing capabilities for managing R&D organisations or using AI tools in R&D.
Working in research and innovation
The labour market for research and innovation (R&I) professionals is shaped by the interplay of supply and demand dynamics, as well as various contextual and institutional factors. Internationally comparable indicators on the availability and demand for R&I talent, along with their employment conditions, support policymakers, organisations, and individuals in understanding a vital dimension of their R&I ecosystems. These indicators help to highlight key challenges and opportunities.
At different levels of granularity, such indicators can also inform how various actors evaluate a wide range of options, from public policies on higher education, research, and competitiveness, to organisational workforce planning, professional development strategies, and individual career choices.
Highly qualified workforce: Doctorate and Master’s degree holders
Advanced tertiary education qualifications play a key role in shaping the availability, or supply, of research and innovation (R&I) talent. Doctorate holders, in particular, are trained to lead and conduct research.
Tracking the number and distribution of doctorate holders relative to those with a master’s degree, across fields, including STEM, and within different demographic groups, provides valuable insights into the R&I workforce’s capabilities.
However, indicators of advanced qualifications alone do not capture the full range of individuals actively engaged in, or prepared to contribute to, R&I activities. ReICO’s measurement efforts therefore also aim to develop and report indicators that track the supply and use of relevant R&I skills more broadly.
The R&D workforce
Statistics on the size, specialisation, distribution, demographic characteristics, and total remuneration of the workforce engaged in research and experimental development (R&D), as reported by the organisations employing them, are essential for understanding R&D ecosystems and, by extension, a key dimension of demand for R&I talent.
These statistics typically cover the occupational categories of researchers, including scientists and professionals such as engineers who lead R&D projects, as well as technicians and others involved in implementation and support roles. In recent years, the share of R&D personnel employed in the business sector has increased across most countries.
However, organisations often face challenges in reporting detailed personal data on their staff and collaborators, leading to notable information gaps. ReICO is working to identify the best ways to address these gaps.
The use of R&I skills and qualifications in the workplace
Labour market indicators for key groups with advanced qualifications and skills, benchmarked against relevant groups and countries, help reflect national demand for research and innovation (R&I) talent and provide valuable signals to decision makers. Understanding the evolving demand for R&I professionals supports better alignment between workforce development and market needs, helping to prevent mismatches and maximise the potential of a country’s R&I talent pool.
While standard occupational and industrial classifications do not unambiguously capture R&I activity, they do offer useful insights into how economies employ skilled professionals in research- and innovation-related functions and sectors.
Beyond existing indicators, developing new measures of demand for R&I talent is a key medium- to long-term objective for ReICO. Examples include monitoring the size of the workforce in organisations that introduce innovations; collecting more detailed information on occupations and their actual R&I intensity; and tracking new job postings by qualification requirements and R&I-related functions. Paying particular attention to specific groups, such as scientists and inventors, is also a priority.
Remuneration, job quality and work conditions for R&I talent
Information on the quality of jobs and working conditions for research and innovation (R&I) professionals influences individual development decisions and career choices. Indicators in this area can support policies aimed at nurturing, attracting, and retaining talent, thereby contributing to more resilient and productive R&I ecosystems.
The attractiveness of R&I jobs is shaped by multiple factors. These include not only core attributes such as remuneration, benefits, job security, and flexibility, but also opportunities to advance the frontiers of knowledge, exercise autonomy in research, and pursue entrepreneurial or societal impact goals; features often unique to R&I careers.
However, even those aspects that are theoretically easier to quantify have proven difficult to measure reliably across countries and sectors. Challenges include accounting for the heterogeneity of R&I jobs and jobholders, as well as their diverse motivations. ReICO promotes coordinated efforts to address these knowledge gaps.
Monitoring the circulation of research and innovation talent
The circulation of R&I talent plays a central role in shaping the fabric of regional, national and global research and innovation ecosystems as mobility across several dimensions enables knowledge exchange, collaboration and diffusion. Opportunities for mobility help define R&I career pathways and contribute significantly to personal and professional development, improving job prospects, collaboration and specialisation but can under some circumstances also present challenges for countries and organisations in terms of brain drain or security. Understanding the factors influencing R&I talent mobility, including policies across several policy domains such as education, migration, research funding and labour market, can help inform the collaborative design and implementation of coherent policies.
International mobility in R&I talent development
International flows of R&I talent often begin during formative stages, as individuals pursue advanced qualifications, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, in countries other than those where they were born or raised.
Some countries are more successful than others in attracting international students, i.e. those who have crossed a national or territorial border for the purpose of education. The propensity to attract internationally mobile students also varies by field of study. For example, across OECD countries, STEM degree programmes tend to have a comparatively higher proportion of international students and graduates.
International mobility in the R&I workforce
The labour market for doctorate holders is highly internationalised, particularly in comparison to other levels of tertiary education. This reflects several factors, including intense global competition for talent at the knowledge frontier, the pursuit of collaboration with leading researchers, access to unique research facilities, and the prevalence of prior international study experience among doctorate holders.
ReICO aims to generate evidence on various aspects of international R&I mobility, such as transitions from advanced study to employment among international students. It also seeks to monitor how the size and composition of the internationally mobile R&I workforce evolve in response to changes in domestic conditions and policy environments.
Scientists on the move: Tracking the mobility of scientific authors
The digital traces left by R&I talent communities, such as authors of scientific publications, can be used to track mobility flows and connections across borders, helping to overcome the limitations of jurisdiction-specific data. Changes in author affiliations over time, for individuals who publish multiple times, provide insights into patterns of talent circulation and their relationship to personal characteristics, research productivity, and working conditions.
This type of analysis can also be extended to other communities, such as inventors, provided that data sources are able to disambiguate individuals with identical names or variations of the same name. Digital traces found in publications, patents, or social media can further support monitoring of other forms of labour mobility and domain shifts in research activity. However, such sources must be assessed carefully for potential biases.
Talent circulation or brain drain/gain?
Amid ongoing debates about brain drain and brain gain, analysing competing hypotheses on the nature of R&I talent mobility remains a high priority for many countries. Available indicators suggest that, in most cases, gross flows of talent between countries far exceed net flows, supporting the idea of a “circulation” paradigm. However, there are instances where countries experience significant net losses, often triggered by deteriorating conditions relative to those in talent-attracting destinations. Moreover, circulation can mask qualitative differences between those leaving and those arriving, such as variations in skills, experience, or research fields.
There are several evidence gaps in monitoring R&I talent circulation. ReICO is developing longitudinal data analysis strategies to track movements within and between sectors such as academia, industry, and government; key channels for knowledge exchange and collaboration. Understanding these flows offers valuable insights into career pathways, the skills required for different roles, and the factors that influence researchers' decisions to move across sectors and occupations.