Trump step forces scientists to seek jobs in Europe

David Die Dejean is passionate about studying tuna. Last year, he landed a dream job at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami to pursue his research. By January, he was settled in, had received a good review and loved working with his colleagues, he said. Then in mid-February he received an email to vacate the premises within 90 minutes. He and hundreds others had been dismissed in job cuts targeting probationary workers as US President Donald Trump’s new administration began slashing funding for universities and research bodies. Now Die Dejean is applying for positions in Europe.

“I want to work wherever they allow me to do the research,” said the scientist, who studies fish stocks to ensure tuna is being fished sustainably. “I’m eagerly waiting for some of the things that are coming from the European Union...increasing the opportunities for scientists like me to come back,” said Die Dejean, who was born in Spain but has spent most of his career in the US and Australia.

Trump’s administration says billions of dollars in cuts are needed to curb the federal deficit and bring the US debt under control. His cutbacks on research come amid a broader clash that has seen Trump criticise universities as discriminatory for their diversity policies and denounce what he sees as a failure by some institutions to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. The threat to academics’ livelihoods at universities including Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins has given Europe’s political leaders hope they could reap an intellectual windfall. A letter, reviewed by Reuters, signed in March by 13 European countries including France, Germany and Spain, urged the EU Commission to move fast to attract academic talent. The European Research Council, an EU body that finances scientific work, told Reuters it would double the relocation budget for funding researchers moving to the EU to 2 million euros ($2.16 million) per applicant. That goes towards covering the cost of moving to a European institution, which may involve setting up a laboratory.

In Germany, as part of coalition talks for a new government, conservatives and Social Democrats have drawn up plans to lure up to 1,000 researchers, according to negotiation documents from March seen by Reuters that allude to the upheaval in U.S. higher learning.

Reuters spoke to 13 European universities and research institutes that reported seeing an increase in US-based employees considering crossing the Atlantic, as well as half a dozen US-based academics pondering a move to Europe. “Regulatory uncertainty, funding cuts, immigration restrictions, and diminished international collaboration create a perfect storm for brain drain,” said Gray McDowell at US digital consultancy firm Capgemini Invent.

A White House official said the administration is analysing research grants and prioritizing funding for areas likely to deliver returns for taxpayers “or some sort of meaningful scientific advancement”. The NOAA cuts were designed to avoid compromising its ability to do its duties, the official added.

Pulling in U.S. talent to Europe requires more than good will though. It requires money.

For decades, Europe has lagged far behind the U.S. on investment in its seats of higher learning. Total expenditure on research and development in the EU among businesses, governments, universities and private non-profit organizations in 2023 was 381 billion euros ($411 billion), according to the latest figures by Eurostat — the statistical office of the European Union. That same year, total research and experimental development in the US was estimated at $940 billion, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, a federal agency that provides data on the performance of science and engineering in the US And while the US’s richest university, Harvard, has an endowment worth $53.2 billion, that of Britain’s wealthiest, Oxford, is only 8.3 billion pounds ($10.74 billion).

One academic and an expert in academia said, even with a concerted and substantial effort, Europe would likely need a long time to overturn that spending advantage.

“I don’t foresee a rapid build-up of additional scientific capability that could match what the US now has...for several decades”, Michael Oppenheimer, a Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton, told Reuters. The White House official said even with the cuts, the US would still account for the most global research funding, adding: “Europe is not going to and cannot fill the void.”

Dozens of scientists have taken to social media encouraging peers to stay in the US, while others acknowledge a number of drawbacks may deter them from moving. Michael Olesen, director of an infection prevention program for a healthcare system in Washington, DC, said language barriers were one potential drawback, as were unfamiliar laws and employment practices.