Internationalisation, Mobility and Pensions

The Experiences of Early Career Researchers

This chapter focuses on the relationship between researcher mobility and pensions. Reporting on recent research with mobile researchers, it considers two related questions: firstly, do concerns around pensions inhibit researcher mobility and, secondly, does researcher mobility impact on the pension status of researchers? It examines these questions in the light of the findings of a recent research study and discussion of the policy implications of this issue arising from a Bologna process seminar in 2008. Although the study and seminar considered all levels of seniority, this article focuses on the early career research stage. The chapter will be of interest to those people concerned with the development of research careers and also, individual researchers attempting to negotiate their careers.