Ireland hopes to entice academics as US becomes ‘a cold place for free thinkers'
Ireland is to launch a scheme to poach academics and university lecturers from overseas on the basis that the Trump administration has made the US 'a cold place for free thinkers and talented researchers'.
The higher education minister, James Lawless, will on Tuesday seek cabinet approval for a 'global talent initiative' to entice top international academics, including those seeking to leave the US or deterred from working there.
The plan envisages deploying roving academic talent scouts who will offer potential recruits attractive packages, with the Irish government contributing up to half of the salaries offered by Ireland's third-level institutions. The talent hunt will reportedly prioritise experts in renewable energy, food security, digital technology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and healthcare.
Lawless told an Irish universities association seminar on Monday: 'Today, as US research freedoms come under threat, Ireland has a unique opportunity to emulate their post-war success by offering a stable, open, EU-aligned environment where world-class researchers can thrive, contribute and shape the future of science. Ireland will be a welcoming host for the best and brightest fleeing the US university system.'
Perceptions of the US as a haven for research had changed in recent months, the minister said. 'It has become a cold place for free thinkers and talented researchers. We all know how that will grind advanced research to a halt. And that is nothing in the face of the human suffering of targeted student arrests and deportations'. Reports of library culls 'bring to mind book burnings of old', he said.
As a precedent Lawless cited Ireland's success in enticing Erwin Schrödinger to Dublin on the eve of the second world war. The Austrian physicist helped to set up the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS).
The Irish scheme follows efforts by Belgium's Vrije Universiteit Brussel, France's Pasteur Institute and other European institutions to recruit US researchers by offering themselves as a haven for those keen to escape a White House crackdown on research and academia. In March the Netherlands said it planned to launch a fund to attract researchers.
The Trump administration has frozen billions in federal funds for research under in the name of efficiency and punishing alleged anti-semitism and other transgressions in academia. It has been called an 'RMS Titanic moment' for American higher education.
The migration of talent might initially benefit only individual, high-profile researchers but there would be an economic effect, Cas Mudde, the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, recently wrote in the Guardian. 'That might force even the Trump administration to change course.'
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Glasgow Times
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Western Telegraph
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- Western Telegraph
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Powys County Times
41 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
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The top three countries that sent people to the UK on youth mobility visas between January and December 2024 were Australia (9,754 visas), New Zealand (4,304 visas) and Canada (3,060 visas). How many Britons go abroad on youth mobility type schemes? Figures are patchy on how many British people have gone abroad on a youth mobility scheme. The Department for Business and Trade was unable to share data. Australia publishes a twice-yearly report into what it calls its working holiday visa programme. That is the Australian equivalent to the UK's youth mobility scheme. The latest such report covered the 12 months to the end of June 2024. That report showed that Australia issued 48,973 working holiday visas to UK citizens. Data from New Zealand is available on the website of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. 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She said the fact the UK sends more people to Australia, Canada and New Zealand than it receives from them 'probably results from the fact that the UK has a much larger population than they do, so we just have more young people potentially interested in moving'. With the EU scheme, Ms Sumption said, the population sizes are flipped – that is to say the EU's population is much bigger than the UK, leaving more young people who might be willing to come here. Therefore the smaller the cap on the number of visas is, the more likely both the EU and UK will fill their quotas. If both fill their quotas – and the quotas going both ways are the same – then the impact on net migration will be zero. However if the cap is large then it is more likely that there will not be as many Britons going to Europe as are coming in the opposite direction, which will bring up net migration. But, as with the existing schemes, both Britons in Europe and Europeans in the UK will eventually have to leave unless they find another visa, which over the long run should mean that the programme has a neutral impact on net migration. Links BBC – Today, 19/05/2025 Migration Observatory – What is the Youth Mobility Scheme and how does it work? (archived) – Entry clearance visas granted outside the UK (archived page and spreadsheet, using tab Data_Vis_D02) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Visitor visa statistics (archived) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Working Holiday Maker visa program report (archived) New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Migration data explorer (archived page and downloaded spreadsheet. To download the correct spreadsheet, instructions can be found at (archived): In dataset select 'W1 work decisions', in time period select 'calendar year' and in variables select 'application substream', 'application criteria' and 'decision type')
