![\"French](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2212946881_CROP.jpg\")
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Choose Europe for Science in Paris, in May 2025 (Image: Gonzalo Fuentes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nAmid Donald Trump\u2019s cuts to federal institutions and grants, more US-based scientists are considering jumping ship \u2013 and Europe will be waiting with open arms.<\/p>\n
Is the world\u2019s leading research-and-development (R&D) nation scaring away its best and brightest? As relations between the Trump administration and American universities grow increasingly confrontational \u2013 and sweeping cuts to government funding put thousands of scientific jobs in limbo\u00a0\u2013 up to 75 per cent of US-based scientists say that they are considering leaving the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the US\u2019s loss could be Europe\u2019s gain. The number of top researchers looking for a more welcoming environment is just the opportunity to start closing the R&D gap that has long existed\u00a0between the Old Continent and the US.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Choose Europe for Science in Paris, in May 2025 (Image: Gonzalo Fuentes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Andrew Michael Liebhold is one such example. After almost four decades at the US Forest Service (USFS), the research entomologist accepted an offer to become chief scientist at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, which funded his position with the help of investments by the European Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turns out that I got out just in time,\u201d Liebhold tells Monocle. A few months after his move, his previous department at the USFS \u2013\u00a0with roughly 1,500 staff, nearly a third of whom hold doctorates \u2013 came under threat when the Trump administration proposed major cuts to its funding by 2026. \u201cI\u2019ve received phone calls from former colleagues who are afraid they will be out of a job soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The USFS is far from the only example. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which conducts critical climate studies, is also being targeted by the White House. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health (NIH), which has supported some of the highest-quality research on healthcare and medicine, has already cancelled nearly $2bn (\u20ac1.7bn) in federal grants to US institutions. The breadth and depth of these cuts has led to thousands of scientists and researchers losing funding for their studies \u2013 and even their jobs.\u00a0\u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s logic seems to be that if we don\u2019t research an issue, then it will go away \u2013 at least from the public sphere,\u201d says Liebhold.<\/p>\n
France has been especially active in efforts to capitalise on the uncertainty in the US. In 2017, Emmanuel Macron called on nations to \u201cMake our planet great again,\u201d inviting US climate scientists to work in France, after Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Paris Climate Accords. In May this year, France also launched a new national programme called \u201cChoose France for Science\u201d. Macron has since announced that additional funds would draw scientists from across disciplines, insisting that his nation \u201cmust become a refuge\u201d.<\/p>\n
Aix-Marseille University in the south of France has already welcomed new US recruits \u2013 and is set to hire more. \u201cOur colleagues in the US are restricted in their academic freedom,\u201d says the university\u2019s president, Eric Berton. \u201cIt\u2019s in reaction to this that we have created our programme to grant them scientific asylum.\u201d To date, the university has received hundreds of applications from researchers at institutions including Columbia, Harvard, MIT and Nasa.<\/p>\n
For many scientists who are out of a job, or fear that they soon will be, the prospect of a fresh start in Europe will appeal, despite lower salaries and budgets. With France even considering a scientific refugee status as a result of the US exodus, the country is laying the groundwork to capture that talent. While the US shoots itself in the foot, Europe might receive a shot in the arm.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t![\"new](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/new-magazines-illo-crop.png\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tWant more stories like these in your inbox?\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n