Tracing scientific mobility of Early Career Researchers in Spain and The Netherlands through their publications

International scientific mobility is acknowledged to be a key mechanism for the diffusion of knowledge, particularly tacit or ‘sticky’ knowledge that cannot be transferred without geographical proximity and personal contact (Frenken 2010), for the incorporation of young researchers into elite transnational scientific networks (Laudel 2005), and for accessing additional resources or infrastructures that are essential to the research process but located in other places. The benefits of mobility as a means for knowledge diffusion are used as justification for the support policies and programmes that encourage the mobility of European Researchers (CEC 2004, 2008). The demand for researcher mobility indicators has been building in the EU since the launching of the Mobility Strategy for the European Research Area (CEC 2001).