CNN
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Daniel Beckman, a neuroscientist who grew up in Brazil, always dreamed of moving to the US for work. So, in 2017, when Beckman got the opportunity to work at UC Davis’s National Center for Primate Research, she jumped at it.
“I was very excited,” she recalled. “It’s always been a dream to come to the US. It’s always been a place where there’s always the biggest investment in science and where there’s always.”
However, months after President Donald Trump’s second term, Beckman no longer sees the United States as a welcome home for research, as his administration is fighting an unprecedented war with the country’s top universities and research institutions.
She told CNN that she is currently planning to move and is seeing opportunities in Germany and France.
Beckman is part of the wave of scholars, scientists and researchers leaving the United States, where many warnings may be the biggest brain drain seen over decades.
However, America’s losses could be in the profits of the rest of the world.
The Trump administration is competing to freeze billions of dollars with research funding, interfere with curriculum, threaten the ability of international students to study in the US, government, universities and research institutions in Canada, Europe and Asia, and attract talent to flee.
The European Union has pledged 500 million euros ($562 million) “to turn Europe into a researcher’s magnet” over the next three years.
The university in Marseille, France, is pleading for scholars who have been persecuted under a new program called “Safe For Science.” Canada’s largest health research institute has invested $30 million ($21.8 million) to attract 100 scientists early in their careers from the US and elsewhere. Norwegian Research Council has launched a fund of 100 million crores ($9.8 million) to attract new researchers. The president of Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore recently spoke to the crowd at the Higher Education Summit.
The Australian Academy of Sciences has also launched a new talent programme to recruit disillusioned US-based scientists and tempt Australians to their homelands.
Anna Maria Arabia, the Academy’s chief executive, said the program has received “encouragement interest” so far.
Arabia told CNN that the flooding of agencies rushing to fill the void left by US funding cuts reflects “global hunger” for science and technology experts.
“It is very important that science continues without ideological interference,” Arabia said.
The US has long been a major powerhouse when it comes to research and development, attracting talent from afar with its large budgets, high pay and fashionable labs.
Since the 1960s, federal government data shows that US government spending (R&D) in 1961 has more than doubled from $58 billion in 1961 to nearly $160 billion in 2024 (inflation-adjusted dollars). When incorporating R&D funds from the private sector, that number of balloons will be estimated at over $900 billion in 2023.
The huge US investment in R&D has had a major impact on the global stage. The United States has won over 400 Nobel Prizes. The UK is more than twice as many as the next country. More than a third of the US awards were won by immigrants.
Kenneth Wong, professor of education policy at Brown University, said:
But Trump’s second term overthrew ties between higher education and the federal government.
Trump’s tumultuous federal health science institutions has led to job losses and reduced funding, including the National Institutes of Health, which fund nearly $50 billion in medical research each year at universities, hospitals and science institutions.
About 700 NIHs cancelled a total of $1.8 billion grants between the end of February and the beginning of April, according to an analysis by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Trump administration has proposed a 40% reduction in the NIH budget for 2026.
The National Science Foundation has also significantly reduced grants worth $1.4 billion. On Wednesday, 16 US states sued the Trump administration over NSF cuts, which they argue would hinder “groundbreaking scientific research” and “(at risk) national security, economy and public health.”
Trump is also targeting elite universities and is in the midst of a legal battle with Harvard for refusing to succumb to administration instructions to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and for refusing to bring billions of federal funding. The fight escalated significantly this month when Trump banned Harvard’s ability to register international students. This is a decision that was promptly stopped by a federal judge after Harvard University filed the lawsuit.
This week, the White House directed federal agencies to cancel all contracts with Harvard.
“The president is more interested in giving money to the taxpayers to trade schools, programs and state schools that promote American values, but most importantly, educating the next generation based on the skills we need in the economy and society.
“We need to have more people in our country and fewer LGBTQ alumni from Harvard.”
Foreign institutions have already jumped at the opportunity to welcome Harvard students who are currently caught up in legal spheres. On Monday, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said it would accept Harvard students who wish to transfer and prospective students with Harvard’s current offers.
“I think this is the most important crisis that universities have faced since World War II,” Wong said. “We see a complete reset of this joint relationship between the federal government and the major research institutions.”
Beacons of scientific research once became an increasingly hostile place for research, teaching and research. Three-quarters of US scientists surveyed by the Journal Nature In March they said they were considering leaving because of Trump administration’s policies.
Some have already jumped over the ship. Yale University’s Jason Stanley, Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder, and scholars of fascism, announced in March that they would depart for the University of Toronto across Canada’s borders for the humiliation of Trump’s academic freedom.
Beckman, a Brazilian neuroscientist, said her lab has seen $2.5 million in grant funding cancelled in recent months. In addition to these funding issues, Beckman said that by cracking down on immigration by the Trump administration and changing attitudes towards foreigners in the US, she has encouraged her to look for jobs elsewhere.
“It’s only been since I moved here that I feel I’m not welcome anymore,” she said.
Early career scientists will be hit hardest as the US research ecosystem responds to reduced academic freedom budgets and intrusions, Wong said. But young researchers are also more mobile, and institutions around the world welcome them with open arms.
“What we’re losing is that this whole executive of very productive, young, energetic, well trained, knowledgeable, highly skilled researchers, is ready to take off,” Wong said.
Other countries have long been deprived of investment in scientific research as the US has absorbed global research and development needs, Wong said. But that trend is changing.
R&D spending in China has skyrocketed over the last few decades, and the country has narrowed the gap with the US. China spent more than $780 billion on R&D in 2023, according to OECD data. The European Union is also spending more on research and development. According to the OECD, R&D investment in the block increased from around $360 billion in 2007 to $540 billion in 2023.
For months, Beckman said he had considered moving away from her covid-19 research, which is becoming increasingly politicized under the Trump administration.
However, she then began interviewing institutions in other countries.
“I’m interested in virology around the world, except in the current US.”
