In a world in which research is carried out on a truly global basis, international interaction is important to scientific success. Researchers move and collaborate to pursue scientific excellence. Mobility ensures a circulation of skills and ideas around the world, and ‘brain circulation’ in the global research system sees scientists follow the best science and the best resources.
The EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are dedicated to promoting researcher mobility and career development. Grants provided by MSCA are available for all stages of a researcher’s career. Fellows include PhD candidates and those carrying out more advanced research.
Because they encourage individuals to work in other countries, the MSCA make the whole world a learning environment. They encourage collaboration and sharing of ideas between different industrial sectors and research disciplines. MSCA also back initiatives that break down barriers between academia, industry and business. In addition, they reach out to the public with events that promote the value – and fun side – of science. These inter-related goals are reflected in the various types of MSCA actions. It all adds up to a huge investment. In fact, the EU has set aside EUR 6.16 billion to be spent by 2020 on researcher training and career development.
EURAXESS ASEAN regularly invites Asean researchers who are Marie Curie Fellows to share their experience with our readership. This month we caught up with Singaporean researcher Dr Wing Wah Tham who is an Professor at the School of Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Prof Tham, you are a Professor at the School of Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales. How would you describe your research to a total layman?
My current research agenda focuses on the most important capital of any organisation – its human capital. In particular, I’m interested in factors that might affect the failures and the successes of innovators, and how to measure those effects using tools like economic models, big data analytics, econometrics and machine learning. My research has the potential to shape the innovation ecosystem by demonstrating how we can nurture and develop innovators through more effective public and economic policies, and by overcoming barriers to innovation, knowledge diffusion and creation.
What motivates you as a researcher? How can society benefit from your work?
Being an academic is the best job in life is no cliché to me and I will highly encourage anyone to pursue an academic career where one can work on whatever (s)he wants and with whoever (s)he likes on subjects that can potentially change lives of many people in our society.
When we talk about innovation, we often think of places like Silicon Valley, but in fact, my research has the potential to impact all kinds of people and all kinds of communities. I’m currently collaborating with the Cambodian Government on improving the digital and financial inclusion of Cambodians below the poverty line. The ability to engage with policy makers in designing policies that will potentially empower and lift opportunity-deprived children and people out of poverty brightens up my days.
EURAXESS is an EU-funded initiative that supports mobile researchers. Can you share with us the different stops of your research career so far?
My academic career began in 2001 when I took my first step into the grey but beautiful London to pursue my master’s degree at the Imperial College London. That was the formation year of my academic life, when I spent majority of my time, often until early hours in the morning, discussing about research across various fields and what we want to do for the society with geeky flatmates. I briefly work for Reuters before pursuing my PhD in Finance at Imperial College in 2004. I transferred to University of Warwick one year later to pursue my research in high-frequency econometrics and work as a research fellow for ERC funded European New and Emerging Science and Technology Project: Complex Markets. I graduated in 2009 and joined the Econometric Institute in Erasmus University of Rotterdam as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. I became a Marie Curie Fellow in 2010 and a Tinbergen Research Fellow in 2011. In 2014, I was promoted to Associated Professor of Econometrics with tenure. I joined University of New South Wales to be closer to my home in Singapore and am currently an Associate Professor of Finance and an UNSW Scientia Fellow.
You were awarded an MSCA research grant in 2010. What encouraged you to apply for this specific grant?
It is of paramount importance that an early career scholar is clear with his/her strategic priorities and goals as an academic. In 2009, I identified my development needs and activities that will help me to achieve a set of key performance targets that I set. MSCA research grant provided me the opportunity to have the financial and organization resources to achieve these targets. I did not need much encouragement to seize this opportunity to interact with other world class scholars and to be affiliated with such a prestigious fellowship.
Can you tell us a little about the research you conducted as a MSCA Fellow? How has this mobility experience helped with your career development?
I was investigating the role of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as an example of foreign and politically connected large shareholders, and their impact on firm value. Using a sample of SWF large U.S. investments where SWFs intend to actively engage with management, I analyze not only whether but also why SWF investments outperform the market in both the short- and long term from the perspective of internationalization, political connections, and corporate governance. The social implication is that SWF investment benefits appear to outweigh the costs for firm value and shareholders. This is the first work to provide evidence on how foreign government-related shareholders can affect firm value.
I won the Outstanding Author Contribution Award at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence – Emerald Group Publishing Limited for a book chapter on sovereign wealth funds. A related work is subsequently published in the premier international business journal, Journal of International Business Studies.
I’m grateful that the MSCA Fellowship has provided me with the resources and the opportunity to develop myself in research, leadership and social engagement beyond what a typical academic can do. I get to network and collaborate with the brightest scholars in other disciplines with the potential to develop new long-term friendships. I was also able to finance my other research activities beyond the initial proposed project, which resulted in top-tier publications in journals such as Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Econometrics and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
There are many highly talented researchers in Singapore, and in ASEAN at large, but only very few apply to the MSCA grants. What would be your message to those that are hesitant to use this opportunity?
MSCA grant is one of the most prestigious grants in the world that will provide you with the research network and financial support to develop into a world-class scholar. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get up and join the MSCA family.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I have never been good at predicting my future even though I have spent plenty of time with some of the best time series econometricians in the world. If you were to ask me this question when I was in junior college, I’d tell you I wanted to be a marine biologist. Then 10 year later, I was pursuing a finance degree in London, then wanting to be an investment banker...and now here I am a Professor of Finance thinking about how to get Cambodian kids out of the poverty trap.I am just too free spirited to stick to what I think I will be in 10 years’ time. But I guarantee you this. I will definitely be involved in providing more opportunities for the less privileged to realise the full potential of what they can truly be.