US scientists look to Europe in wake of Trump funding cuts

The age-old Europe-to-US brain drain may be reversing in the wake of President Donald Trump’s funding cuts and research restrictions, as US researchers look across the Atlantic for sanctuary.

Several major US research institutes face the risk of losing federal funding, and DW noted that “the uncertainty… is so great that many researchers want to leave”: A Nature poll found that 75% of US-based scientists are considering emigrating, likely to Canada or Europe.

German institutions are trying to lower the bureaucratic hurdles to hiring them, while research institutes in France are offering positions to American scientists who lost their jobs in the cuts, and academics in Britain are urging their government to do the same.