Scientific mobility and knowledge transfer at the interregional and intraregional level

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to explore in a conceptual way as well as empirically the extent and nature of knowledge flows which result from the international mobility of world-class scientists. Based on the findings from worldwide survey of 'star scientists' (i.e. authors of highly-cited journal articles in different research areas), it is shown that these top researchers establish manifold interregional knowledge links between their sending and receiving areas and embed themselves in their location of choice by creating connections to regional actors. Furthermore, the paper identifies a set of crucial factors that determine whether or not star scientists engage in intraregional knowledge transfer activities