This chapter introduces the idea of scientific cultures as complex, multifaceted sets of norms and values, shared within a given scientific community, about the appropriate social practice of scientific teaching and research. It identifies seven dimensions of scientific cultures:

1. 1. The attitude towards existing scientific knowledge

2. 2. The approach to problem-solving

3. 3. The scope of research ambitions

4. 4. The degree of autonomy given to individual scientists within a research team

5. 5. The importance given to rank and seniority

6. 6. The attitudes towards difference within the lab or research organization, and finally

7. 7. The approach to inward- and outward-facing communication

This chapter introduces the concept of scientific remittances – the informational, reputational and cultural diffusion that occurs as a result of the brain circulation of scientists. The scientific remittances that returning Asian scientists bring back with them include, not just new scientific know-how and new network connections in the global scientific field, but also new norms and values regarding the social practice of scientific training and research. At the same time, this chapter acknowledges that the Asian societies where scientists returned had also undergone change during their time in the West. Partly in response to these societal changes, and their own positionality within their institutions, returnees tended to focus their own change efforts on their labs and classrooms. I highlight four key cultural dimensions where returnees were focusing their change efforts. These were:

1. 1. Encouraging a curiosity-driven approach to scientific learning

2. 2. Raising their students’ research passions and ambitions

3. 3. Leveling attitudes towards rank within their labs

4. 4. Broadening attitudes towards difference.

This chapter introduces the questions driving the book and summarizes its four main findings:

1. 1. The recent improvements in the scientific research systems in select Asian countries, that have led to an increase in the return migrations of Western-trained Asian scientists

2. 2. The increasing diversification of training pathways within the Asian scientist migration system

3. 3. How returned Asian scientists are affecting the scientific research systems and scientific cultures in the Asian research organizations where they work through their scientific remittances

4. 4. The variations that exist in the scientific research systems and cultures across Asia.

This concluding chapter outlines the implications of the shifting scientific landscape in Asia for future generations of Asian scientists. The chapter reviews the theoretical implications of the key findings from the book, and revisits the new concepts and ideas introduced throughout the book, which have relevance for the fields of migration studies, science & technology studies and also gender studies. The chapter highlights what is yet to be studied on this topic, and lays out a future research agenda for scholars from these fields. Finally, the chapter highlights the policy implications of these developments for Asian and non-Asian countries, and ends with a set of policy recommendations for government officials and research leaders in these countries as they seek to make themselves attractive destinations for native (and nonnative) research scientists and raise their relative profile in the global scientific field.

This chapter documents the changes that returnees observed in their respective Asian country’s research systems that affected their experience of pursuing scientific research in Asia. Change in five dimensions of scientific research systems in each of the four Asian case countries are identified:

1. 1. Research funding: the volume of funding available, the rate at which a scientist’s grant applications are successful, and the research areas/modalities that are prioritized

2. 2. Research administration: the policies and processes surrounding grant applications, funding disbursement, and the ordering of research supplies, and also more general administrative processes

3. 3. Research networks: the degree of connections returned scientists have, and are able to create, with actual and potential research collaborators within the global scientific field

4. 4. Research staff: the availability of postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students to work in scientists’ labs, and the quality and commitment levels of these support personnel

5. 5. Research infrastructure: the availability and quality of the space, equipment, specimens and supplies available to researchers to conduct their research.