The American science landscape is under pressure: More and more researchers are looking for professional alternatives abroad after the current US government is taking more and more cuts and abolishing science freedom.
Unprecedented exodus
Between January and March 2025, the number of applications from US scientists increased by 32 percent compared to the previous year. The increase in March was particularly striking: The calls of international job offers rose by 68 percent compared to the previous year – just in the month in which the government further tightened its cuts.
This works from data from the job platform Nature Careers emerged, which belongs to the renowned journal Nature. A particularly drastic example: Over 200 federal grants for HIV and AIDS research were suddenly deleted in March. Covid 19 projects also lost average, and the renowned Columbia University had to accept cuts of $ 400 million due to propalestinic protests. James Richards from the Springer-Nature career team now speaks of an “unprecedented exodus” that was triggered by it.
Other countries are responding to the events in the USA: The University of Aix-Marseille in France has specifically addressed US researchers with the “Safe Place for Science” program. 15 million euros were made available to accept 15 scientists who are hindered by political interventions in their work.
The response was overwhelming: 298 applications were received, 70 percent of them from the United States. Similar developments are shown in Germany. At the beginning of April, the Max Planck Society announced a new transatlantic program that is intended to offer refugee researching new perspectives-for example through additional postdoc positions and even directorial items.
More than just an option
For many US scientists, the step abroad is more than just an option – it is a necessity. The chemical engineer Valerie Niemann, for example, recently left Stanford and moved to Switzerland. “We no longer know how long our positions exist,” she said.
Biostatistic Xiao WU also comments: his first funding from the National Institutes of Health was deleted only three months after approval. “Without these funds, my professional future is seriously threatened,” he said. The international science location in the USA, a magnet for talents from all over the world for a long time, could now become an exporter of specialists. In the medium to long term, economic performance will also suffer when researchers are driven out of the country.
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