Beginning of an exodus?


The training for an independent research career in the biomedical sciences entails a significant opportunity cost. It takes an average of about seven years from the bachelors degree to get the PhD, and then there are 2-5 years of postdoctoral training. Indeed, it's common to do two postdocs to get diversified training. Those years could have been spent working at a higher salary, but if you can go on to get a more highly compensated position as a tenure-track professor in academia or a group leader in industry, you can make up the opportunity cost.

With DOGE now attempting to gut federal biomedical research grant funding and Trump’s assaults on research universities, the career paths that thousands of trained scientists in the US have invested in are threatened. Of course, when you possess specialized expertise, you can shop your skills to other countries that place a higher value on research than the Trump Administration. It looks like that’s already starting to happen:

“Researchers in the United States are seeking career opportunities abroad as President Donald Trump’s administration slashes science funding and workforce numbers, finds an analysis of Nature’s jobs-board data.

 

“Data from the Nature Careers global science jobs platform show that US scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs abroad between January and March 2025 than during the same period in 2024. At the same time, the number of US-based users browsing jobs abroad increased by 35%.

 

“In March alone, as the administration intensified its cuts to science, views rose by 68% compared with the same month last year.”

 

*snip*

“Applications from US scientists seeking career opportunities in neighbouring Canada increased by 41% between January and March 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. By contrast, applications from Canadian researchers for jobs in the United States dropped by 13%.

 

“Chemical engineer Valerie Niemann is one of many looking beyond the United States to develop her career. This month, she moved from Stanford University in California to take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Bern.

 

“In the United States, she says, “people don’t know how long their postdocs will be. We can’t apply for fellowships because we don’t know how long they’re going to exist.”

A substantial number of PhDs in life science research in the US are foreign-born and have the option of returning to their home country without having to apply for a visa, work permit or citizenship. Together with native-born Americans who may elect to stay in their host country after working abroad for a few years and putting down roots, this represents a stubstantial brain drain that will threaten American innovation beginning in the near future.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01216-7

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