Megagrant Program: an Impetus for International Academic Mobility or a Channel for Brain Drain?

In recent decades Russian government has launched a number of initiatives aimed at developing international cooperation and attracting the world's leading scientists to the country. The largest of these initiatives is the megagrant program. The aim of the article is to study the impact of the program on the international academic mobility of the Russian scientists who took part in it and to identify whether the created laboratories have become platforms through which the invited scientists "pull" the most promising young researchers from Russia. The analysis of the career trajectories of scientists was based on the bibliometric data of the Web of Science system. The initial list of megagrant projects in the sample was limited to the date of completion in 2017. The study showed that although approximately every seventh participant in these projects had at least one affiliation with foreign organizations between 2010 and 2020, only about 2% permanently emigrated from Russia. The vast majority of internationally mobile ex-participants in the projects combine work in Russia and abroad. It can be assumed that scientific heads of laboratories actively invite the most talented Russian researchers for internships or work in their foreign departments. In addition, there are many compatriot scientists and representatives of the Russian scientific diaspora among these scientists, which can serve as an additional incentive for talented Russian researchers to expand the boundaries of cooperation and participate in projects abroad by minimizing language barriers and adaptation problems by enlisting the support of a Russian-speaking mentor.