At Easter in Boston, you can find yourself in a sea of Greeks of all ages and generations. Organizations ranging from the MIT Hellenic Students Association to Greek dance groups and young adult leagues organize Easter events away from home, often attracting hundreds of attendees. Many in this crowd, though firmly upholding cultural traditions and eager to contribute to Greece, have been raised abroad or are already settled into professional and family life there. For them, contemplating a full-on return to Greece as part of a “brain gain” initiative seems perhaps unlikely. However, their enduring desire to be involved with Greece in some way points to a complementary model: a “brain bridge” that would allow the diaspora to contribute to Greece through structured channels of mentorship, investment, academic collaboration, and innovation, regardless of physical location.
What makes a brain bridge lens credible is that the will already exists on both sides. Many young Greeks are eager to connect with global opportunities, and the diaspora – especially in centers like Boston – is equally eager to give back. What’s missing is the connective tissue: institutional platforms that make collaboration easier, more visible, and more enduring. Thankfully, individual pieces of such a structured framework are already in development.
Let’s focus first on academic research. Equipped with strong domestic undergraduate degrees, many young Greeks take their first steps abroad through an advanced degree involving research. Indicatively, 78% of the Greek students at MIT are pursuing a graduate degree, while 40% of the Greek students and scholars at Harvard attend the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Over time, this adds up to hundreds of Greek scholars across the US – from PhD candidates to senior faculty – who are producing world-class research. In recent years, efforts to map and connect this academic diaspora – through directories, or academic databases – have begun to take shape. If further developed and coordinated, these initiatives could provide Greek universities and ministries with a valuable resource for identifying collaborators, inviting visiting scholars, and drawing on specialized expertise for both research and policy engagement.
Increased connectivity can spark fresh collaborations and career openings; meetings for specific disciplines, like the Hellenic Data Management Symposium, have already shown that such bridges are possible. More recent efforts therefore focus on cross-pollination across research disciplines. A case in point is the inaugural Hellenic-American Meeting of Early-Career Researchers (HAMER), which brought together Greek students and junior academics for an interdisciplinary day of presentations. A brainchild of the Circle of Hellenic Academics in Boston, HAMER received overwhelmingly positive feedback, paving the way for making it annual. To close the research transfer loop, the two best presenters were awarded free trips to present back in Greece.
Long before there are results to present, however, we should also aim to connect researchers at the stage of research production. MIT reports six Greek visiting/exchange students in 2024-25, but many of these opportunities are driven by ad hoc personal initiatives. Organizations like the Hellenic Institute of Advanced Studies have started to provide a more structured framework through scholarships for short-term research internships, with some participants being offered pathways to continue their studies in the USA. Expanding the awareness and access of students to such programs could enhance their usefulness as a research and technology transfer mechanism, benefiting researchers both at home and abroad.
The Greek and Greek-American community in Boston is also contributing in meaningful ways when it comes to career development. Mentoring relationships between diaspora professionals and Greek students – often sparked through shared university affiliations or community events – have become increasingly common. At Harvard, the newly launched Harvard Hellenic Association connects Hellenic communities across the university, bridging individual school-based groups into a unified platform. Such networks significantly enhance professional mobility for young Greeks while deepening intergenerational ties within the diaspora.
These networks can be uniquely valuable when it comes to entrepreneurship – Greece can work to actively connect its startups with Greek capital abroad. Case in point: Boston is home to a dense network of venture capital firms and entrepreneurial advisers, giving rise to the Hellenic Innovation Network to channel this knowledge into ventures with Greek roots. Such structured programs could provide Greek founders with access to funding, technical guidance, and commercial pathways into the US market. For diaspora investors, these initiatives offer the opportunity to benefit from recognizing the potential of Greek founders, who may be underestimated by investors less familiar with Greece.
Repatriation along the lines of brain gain initiatives remains a critical objective. In cases where skilled individuals are able and willing to return, they can have an outsized impact on research capacity, entrepreneurship, and public administration. However, adopting a complementary brain bridge outlook can help harness the expertise of both Greeks who have built their lives abroad and second- or third-generation Greek Americans connected to their roots. A more structured relationship between Greece and its diaspora has the potential to deliver sustained, long-term value. It is time to draw inspiration from the existing disparate initiatives to that end and formulate a conscious approach to cultivating this relationship.
Nikolas Neos is a graduate student and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, serving as the 2024-25 president of the Harvard Hellenic Association. Markos Markakis is a PhD candidate at MIT, serving as the 2024-25 president of the MIT Hellenic Students’ Association.