Annual migration balances of inflows and outflows of academic authors and inventors, by selected countries of residence, 2008–2020

Since 2008, on behalf of the German Federal Government, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI) has prepared and published its annual “Report on Research, Innovation and Technological Performance in Germany” (EFI Report for short). It contains a comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the German innovation system in an international and temporal comparison, evaluates Germany’s perspectives as a location for research and innovation and presents proposals for optimising national research and innovation policy.
Based on bibliometric data from Elsevier, annual migration balances of incoming and outgoing academic authors in major host countries were analysed in the period from 2008 to 2020. In 2008, Germany recorded a net outflow of 603 academic authors and thus ranked last among the countries analysed here. However, continuous inflows can be observed over the course of the analysed period, resulting in a positive balance since 2014. In 2020, Germany, with 518 incoming academic authors, is in the middle of the field behind the USA (+2,206), China (+1,135) and Switzerland (+932), and ahead of Japan (-403), France (1,030), the United Kingdom (-1,165) and India (-2,664).
The inflow and outflow balances of inventors between 2008 and 2020 were also analysed on the basis of patent applications. The only country with a positive balance over the entire period is Switzerland. All other countries are in negative territory, with the exception of Germany in 2020. Since 2008, with a net outflow of 313 inventors, the number has grown gradually, resulting in a net inflow of 30 inventors in 2020. In 2020, Germany is therefore behind Switzerland (+132) and ahead of France (-270), Japan (-346), the United Kingdom (-531) and the USA (-1,242).