'We're here': Australia joins the race for US academics

Perth Now

03-07-2025

Australia hopes to bring America's brightest minds Down Under as Donald Trump's research cuts spark a US brain drain.
The US president has taken a chainsaw to science funding, slashing thousands of government grants and transforming the global state of research.
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, said efforts by the Australian Academy of Science to attract American talent was good national co-ordination.
"I'm very pro-American, but if their current government doesn't want some of their best to brightest minds, why should we let them go to Europe or Asia?" he told AAP.
"We haven't invented this challenging environment for American higher education ... but that doesn't mean that we should sit back and watch the French, the Germans, the Asian nations, recruit these clever people without at least Australia saying 'we're here too'."
The academy has designed a relocation package which includes research funding, access to facilities, family relocation support and visa acceleration in a bid to recruit leading US scientists and Australians returning home.
About 70 people have already indicated interest.
Some were directly impacted by the Trump administration's budget cuts and lost either their positions or support for their areas of research.
Though there have been cuts across a range of disciplines, some of the more significant slashes have been applied to areas such as virology and immunology, alongside cuts to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration which enables researchers to forecast weather and model climate change.
Other interested researchers have seen the havoc wreaked on American academia and become "disillusioned or despairing" of their ability to pursue their interests in the US, Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia said.
By comparison, Australia's research landscape is more stable and less politically driven.
"Whilst it's a volatile situation and quite an unfortunate one that we are experiencing, there is a tremendous opportunity for Australia," she told AAP.
By bringing more to Australia, they can contribute to research and development which can eventually open up new economic sectors, new trade potential and a plethora of other benefits, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering chief executive Kylie Walker said.
"You're looking at a decade or more to show benefits from that investment, but when they come - my goodness - they come," she told AAP.
Australia isn't the only nation hoping to capitalise on Mr Trump's attack on academia.
His cuts have ignited a "global race" for science and technology talent, and Australia's universities, research organisations and agencies such as the CSIRO are all trying to attract them.
Almost half of the academy's fellows, which are Australia's most distinguished scientists, were born overseas and many had a multiplier effect when they arrived in Australia as they trained the next generation and helped seed industries.
"This is the Australian story, this is what science is in Australia," Ms Arabia said.
"It's multicultural, it's of the highest standard, it's undertaken in a supportive environment and in a democratic environment where we nurture science and our scientists."