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This paper studies the origin and destination of doctoral candidates and post-doctorates in life sciences in Europe, and gives some elements of comparison for the United States, with a combination of three data sources (Eurostat and NetReAct data for Europe, NSF data for the U.S.). We find that the number of doctoral graduates in life sciences in the EU is higher than in the U.S. (9,000 against 6,000) but the proportion of foreigners is lower in the EU (17% against 29%). The number of postdoctorates in life sciences is more or less the same in the EU and the U.S. (19,000 against 18,000) but the EU attracts less foreign postdoctorates than the U.S. (25% against 57%). 76% of doctoral graduates in life sciences from EU universities continue to work in the EU after graduation whereas 12% go to the U.S. or Canada, and another 12% go to another country. For postdoctorates from EU universities, percentages are more or less the same (76% stay in the EU, 8% go to the U.S. or Canada and 16% to another country)., JRC.J.3-Knowledge for Growth

This paper presents the "modelling" approach followed by IPTS to construct new and original indicators on researchers' career and mobility. Indeed three main problems have been identified in the existing statistics on researchers: lack of data at the EU level on different issues, lack of comparable and harmonized data between EU countries and long delay in obtaining statistics when they exist. To deal with these problems, the strategy consists in filling the gaps in the EU and national data, building proxies when robust data are not available, carrying out new ad-hoc surveys and estimating and extrapolating the results at the EU level when necessary and feasible. The general methodology of this approach is first presented. Then, three examples are developed to illustrate the interests and benefits of this approach in terms of results, but also the difficulties and problems that may exist. The three examples are the following: i) Nocasting/forecasting the number of researchers. ii) The international mobility of researchers and engineers in the EU25; iii) The career and mobility of doctoral candidates and postdoctorates in life sciences in Europe (and a comparison with the US)., JRC.J.3-Knowledge for Growth