Further Publications, Press Articles, Interviews
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research
The Impact of Mobility Grants on Researchers
(2026). The Impact of Mobility Grants on Researchers 2026.
The international mobility of researchers has long attracted the interest of economists and policymakers. Despite the widespread use of mobility grants by public funding agencies, empirical evidence on their effects remains limited. In this paper, we study the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships - the EU's flagship grant scheme supporting researchers' mobility within and across European borders - using data on all applicants to the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013). Exploiting a discontinuity in grant assignment, we identify the causal effects of receiving a fellowship. Results show that fellowships significantly increase the likelihood that researchers move to their preferred destination. Additionally, we show that grants supporting extra-European mobility - both from and towards Europe, as opposed to those supporting mobility within Europe, increase publications quantity and quality, and expand collaboration networks. This suggests that grants are most effective when targeting mobility flows subject to larger frictions.