10th July 2026
There is concrete evidence that top academics and scientists are leaving the US for other countries due to shifts in federal grant funding, budget cuts, and broader policy instability. This outflow is often referred to as a reverse brain drain or an "academic exodus."
Surge in Applications Abroad
An analysis by the journal Nature indicated that applications from US-based researchers for international positions jumped significantly. A widespread survey found that roughly 75% of researchers in the US were considering relocating abroad due to funding turbulence.
Federal Funding Instability
Massive reductions, freezes, or cancellations of federal research grants—particularly from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF)—have left many university laboratories without guaranteed support. This has also resulted in institutional downsizing, such as Harvard University cutting science PhD placements.
Active International Recruitment
Countries in Europe and Asia are actively capitalizing on the situation. For instance, the Netherlands launched a "Tulip Fund" explicitly aimed at attracting top researchers from the US, successfully drawing dozens of prominent scientists. Similarly, institutions in France, the UK, and Canada have launched dedicated funding and talent-lure program.
Specific Departures
Prominent figures, including cognitive scientists like Megan Peters (leaving UC Irvine for University College London), as well as Tamara Swaab and Ron Mangun (leaving UC Davis for the University of Birmingham), are among the high-profile academics who have publicly made the move.
Megan Peters, cognitive scientist said, "It became very apparent, very quickly, that the new administration did not value higher education," she says, or the scientific research done at universities."
Catherine Rampell writing for a Bulward Newsletter.
The U.S. brain drain continues: Chemist Omar Yaghi, who had been a professor at UC Berkeley when he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry last year, has departed the United States for a job at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He will lead a new AI materials lab. In a recent interview with Scientific American, he decried declining financial support for scientific research: “The current state is not so encouraging because of the cutting back on grants and support of science by the very agencies that many university researchers rely on.”