American brain drain
Competition for the best US researchers
Is it a sad opportunity to be seized, or should we be helping people on the spot? We look at how Europe is reacting to the situation of researchers in the USA.
At the national ‘Stand Up for Science’ demonstration on 7 March 2025, people in Chicago protested against the science policies of the Trump administration. | Photo: Nam Y. Huh / Keystone
“American universities and their researchers are the biggest victims of this political and ideological interference”, says Jan Danckaert, the Rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in an interview with The Guardian. That’s why his university has created 12 postdoc posts. “We see it as our duty to come to the aid of our American colleagues”.
Yasmine Belkaid, the director of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, takes a more pragmatic approach. She’s getting requests every day from people who want to leave the USA and come to Europe – French researchers, other Europeans, even Americans. “You might call it a sad opportunity, but it is an opportunity all the same”, she says. Statements from various European politicians have made it clear that there’s now a race to attract top talent from the US science sector. The Netherlands, for example, wants to seize the opportunity by setting up a fund for international researchers. Eppo Bruins, the Dutch Education Minister, emphasises the huge worldwide demand for the top people. “At the same time, the geopolitical climate is changing, which is increasing the international mobility of scientists”. Several European countries are now competing for international talent. “I want the Netherlands to remain at the vanguard of these efforts”, says Bruins.
The Tagesspiegel newspaper in Germany is of a similar opinion, quoting the political adviser Ulrike Malmendier as saying that there is a “huge opportunity” available right now. And Max Planck, the President of the Max Planck Society, says that “the USA is providing us with a new pool of talent”. But Jan-Martin Wiarda – the author of the aforementioned article in the Tagesspiegel – thinks we should be hesitant about adopting a Gold-Rush mentality: “Our debate about science policy ought rather to focus on how to help all those researchers in the United States who don’t want to leave. Once they’re gone, the fight for democracy and academic freedom will become even more desperate”.
