This project focuses on a limited number of highly mobile polyvalent savants -civilians or military- who were invited by the ruling elites of a foreign country to promote scientific-technological policies. The researcher will study the role of these men of science in multidirectional cultural transfer from a comparative perspective. A uniting factor which makes the comparison feasible is achieved through a selection of independent countries where the ruling elites interiorized the notion of decline, “delay” or backwardness and aimed to overcome it by searching inspiration abroad (Spain, Latin American republics, the Ottoman Empire, Russia). The time span includes the period of Enlightenment and the first decades of constitutional regimes. Biographic method and network analysis will be combined with the analysis of discourse in order to examine the representation and self-representation of these savants whose “cosmopolitan” life trajectories -paradoxically?- often combined with their contribution to the building of modern Nation-States. One of the objectives is to examine whether these men constituted not only networks that crossed the borders, but also a universal imagined community. The researcher also aims to analyze the possibilities and limits of cultural transfer, examining the compatibility and incompatibility of practices, standards and values, as well as the appropriation and hybridization of concepts, focusing on broader political and social framework. The multidirectionality of transfer will be stressed, pointing to Extra-European contribution to the Enlightenment. The project will help the researcher acquire new skills: she will use innovative interdisciplinary methodology and develop intercultural communication skills through the collaboration with an international project on Global and World History led by the host institution. Working in the host institution represents a fundamental step for her in order to achieve an independent leading position.