Funding programmes for internationally mobile postdocs

Perceived Impacts on Individuals, Institutions and Society.
An exploratory study

HANS-DIETER DANIEL
PROF. FOR QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ON HIGHER EDUCATION, DEPARTEMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH.

JANA BOBOKOVA
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT THE PROFESSORSHIP FOR QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ON HIGHER EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH.

RÜDIGER MUTZ
SENIOR RESEARCHER AT THE COMPETENCE CENTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENCE STUDIES, CHESS, UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH IN THE FIELD OF QUANTITATIVE SCIENCE RESEARCH.

Internationalization has been presented as a universal good, as if to create a cross-border, cross-cultural or global connection is to automatically trigger a flow of all-around benefits (…).
The claim is made often enough about benefits to the common good (…) but the claim has mostly been couched in very general terms (Marginson 2019). The internationalization of research is no longer a self-evident principle. Purpose and goals need to be defined and explained more than ever before (Deutscher Bundestag/ Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany 2017). In order to explore the magnitude of impacts at a multitude of levels, seven programmes for funding of postdoctoral research stays abroad offered by two research funding organisations in Germany, namely the Volkswagen Foundation (VWS) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) were selected.