The American brain drain has arrived. Just ask these scientists.

Business Insider

13-05-2025

Danielle Beckman moved to the US from Brazil in 2017 to further her research on Alzheimer's.
Eight years later, she's making plans to leave.
"I wanted to make my home here. I wanted to become a professor in the US and have my own lab here. I wanted to make my life here," the scientist at the University of California, Davis, who is now also researching long COVID, told Business Insider. "So it's just this feeling that at the same time that we see so many people sick and have hope with our research, the government doesn't think our research is important anymore."
Beckman received notice last month that her five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health would not be reviewed for renewal because it contained the word "COVID," which was flagged to lose funding under President Donald Trump's crackdown on research grants at higher-education institutions.
She said she didn't see how her lab's work could continue without that funding. She accepted an offer for a new job in Germany, where she plans to continue her research. She's also exploring opportunities in France that would allow her to receive more funding.
"I still think I can contribute a lot. It's just that there is no opportunity here anymore, and I don't want to waste my time," Beckman said. "It's not worth staying here."
Over the past couple of months, the Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in funding to universities that do not comply with its demands, such as eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Some scientists told BI that the cuts would fuel a brain drain out of the US, and countries abroad are already capitalizing on the opportunity by promoting programs to attract US researchers.
Madi Biedermann, the deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, told BI: "Researchers have many reasons to prefer working on campuses that have not seen their operations consistently disrupted by vile antisemitic encampments, violence, and harassment."
She added: "That is just one of the reasons the reforms the U.S. government is advocating are so important. American universities that are committed to their academic mission, protect students on campus, and follow all federal laws have no problem accessing generous taxpayer support for their programs. We expect they will continue to attract and support academic talent in the years to come."
Beckman said that some of her colleagues in other fields of science were leaving and that it would be a major loss for the US.
"I feel like my research is actually important, and it matters for other places; it just doesn't matter for the US government," Beckman said. "I was recruited from Brazil, and suddenly, I'm not useful to this country."
'I'd be on a plane tonight'
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently unveiled a $566 million funding package to attract scientists from around the world.
"Science holds the key to our future," she said. "Because as threats rise across the world, Europe will not compromise on its principles."
British Columbia's health minister, Josie Osborne, said during a recent press conference that "uncertainty and chaos happening south of ourborder" presents an "unprecedented opportunity to attract skilled healthcare workers interested in moving to Canada."
Another US researcher told BI that he checks the job boards every day for opportunities abroad.
"I'd be on a plane tonight," the researcher, who is still employed at a US university, told BI. He said that he had applied for a few opportunities in Europe. While he has not landed a job yet, he said he would move in a heartbeat. He recognizes others may not have that kind of flexibility.
"For the most part, people I've talked to are just kind of resigned to it and just hoping to ride it out," the researcher said. "I'm just in an extremely privileged position to even be able to consider that because it's such an expensive, time-consuming process, and it's very competitive to immigrate somewhere else."
Some scientists facing funding cuts have filed lawsuits instead of moving abroad. BI previously spoke with Peter Lurie, a scientist who received NIH funding for HIV research that was cut because the grant mentioned transgender people.
"The US and the NIH, in particular, have been the envy of the world when it comes to medical research. And what is already starting to happen is that the United States is starting to slip," Lurie said. "It means that there will be people who will go elsewhere for support. It means that there are people who will leave the country for lack of support."
'I'm glad that we're leaving'
Alyssa Adams works for a lab based in Japan that studies artificial intelligence and artificial life. Adams has been going back and forth between the US and Japan for the past 2 ½ years, she said, and is planning to move to Japan permanently in a month.
"It feels like we're jumping ship and it's awful, but I'm glad that we're leaving, honestly," Adams said.
While Trump's funding cuts have not directly affected her research, the indirect impacts have been significant. Adams said the lab still applies for some grants based in the US and Trump's funding cuts are putting the lab's funding avenues at risk. As a result, Adams said the lab is looking to move the US nonprofits it works with to Japan to ensure certainty around its research funding.
"It's definitely impacted how we feel about being in the United States generally because it was fine having one foot in Japan and then one foot in the United States for a while," Adams said. "But especially within the last year, there's been a really big shift, and feeling like this is not the place where you could do science and feel comfortable with it."
Adams added that she had seen firsthand the wave of US scientists seeking to move abroad. She said that at her lab in Japan, there's been "a huge wave of applications" from people in the US, both from scientists who have had their research pulled and from those who have not yet been affected but don't feel comfortable staying in the country.
The funding cuts have already displaced hundreds of researchers.Columbia University's acting president, Claire Shipman, recently announced that the university would terminate 180 employees who received federal grants affected by the cuts.
"We do not make these decisions lightly," Shipman said. "We are deeply committed, at Columbia, to the critical work of invention, innovation, and discovery."
Adams said it'd take a long time for the US to bounce back from these losses.
"We're still doing our research. We're still advancing the march of discovery and doing everything that we can as researchers in a normal way," Adams said. "We're just doing it in places where we feel more welcome and where we feel like we can be ourselves. And unfortunately, these days it's not the United States."