Some scientists in the United States have told Nature that they are considering leaving the country in the wake of widespread disruption to research brought in by the administration of US President Donald Trump. The researchers say they are looking for opportunities in Europe, Australia and Asia.
Since Trump took office in January, his administration has cut thousands of jobs at key public-health and science agencies, frozen biomedical research funding, slashed money to cover research-overhead costs and terminated grants that don’t align with the administration’s priorities. The effects of these changes have been felt by researchers across the United States and abroad.
“I’ve been really, really passionate about my work, but the situation in the US is so stressful,” says a postdoctoral researcher who studies cancer and genomics at a prestigious US institution, and who requested anonymity because she did not have permission to speak to the media. The researcher is from South Asia but has spent the past four years in the United States, and is now talking to colleagues in Europe about opportunities. As someone who is not a US citizen, she is worried about media reports describing the Trump administration’s plans to introduce travel bans affecting specific countries.
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Madhukar Pai, a tuberculosis researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, says that US colleagues have been in touch looking for work, or wanting to talk. “The distress is very palpable and sad to see,” he says.
Ready to go
A prominent infectious-diseases researcher, who is a dual national of the United States and a European Union member state, intends to move back to Europe in the coming months. This is the first time in the decade and a half since he moved to the United States that he is seriously considering job offers from colleagues across the Atlantic. “There is the case to stay and fight”, but “I have to consider what is the best decision for myself, my family, my lab, my research and my mental health”, says the researcher, who wants to remain anonymous because his plans are not finalized and to protect his team.
He says his reasons for leaving include the Trump administration’s anti-science rhetoric and leadership changes at major government agencies. He also worries about the future of funding in his field of infectious diseases and virology.
Leaving the United States will require compromises, he says. Salaries in Europe are generally lower than those for researchers with his experience in the United States, and the research environment in Europe can be less interdisciplinary, he says. Funding for science across Europe also remains stagnant. But having the option to leave puts him in an “extremely privileged position”, he adds.
