This paper investigates the geographic and professional mobility of scientists employed in Singapore’s publicly funded research institutes in various techno-and lifescience specialisations. Using Bourdieu’s conceptual framework, we analyse the capital portfolios of individual scientists against the structures of power which have informed Singapore’s developmental history, the culture of its westernised political elite and its present day aspirations to become a knowledge-based economy. Using survey and interview data, we examine how individual scientists mobilize their portfolios of social and cultural capital in order to extract maximum value from the transnational field of research and development. These processes of mobilization require individuals to negotiate alignments between their habitus and the political-cultural field in Singapore. This empirical grounding enables us to offer some preliminary ideas about transformations to the scientific habitus.