Foreign universities are recruiting researchers unsettled by U.S. funding disruptions, while new survey findings suggest the uncertainty is also changing the plans of scientists still in training.
An Oct. 19 Associated Press report described researchers leaving amid grant cuts and concerns about political influence over research. Universities in countries including Canada, France, Belgium and Finland are promoting recruitment programs and positions, in some cases offering funding guarantees or emphasizing academic freedom.
There is no comprehensive count of how many researchers have left the United States. The AP reported that major research institutions accepted 15% fewer applicants to doctoral programs for fall 2026 than a year earlier, citing admissions data collected by the Association of American Universities.
The report profiled Halley Froehlich, a marine scientist who moved with her family to Finland after grant delays and concern about future U.S. support weighed on her decision. She is continuing her research on how climate change is affecting fish, shellfish and seaweed at the University of Helsinki. A Finnish recruitment program offered her five years of guaranteed funding totaling about $3 million, the AP reported.
Other researchers described different reasons for moving. Christine Stawitz left a job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a research software engineering position at the University of Birmingham in England. She said changes to agency websites and a sense that NOAA no longer aligned with her values contributed to her decision.
Biologists James Letts and Maria Maldonado, who had spent more than a decade doing research in the United States, moved from the University of California, Davis, to Australia’s Monash University. The AP reported that grant uncertainty had forced them to lay off a staff scientist while they waited for stalled funding.
Those accounts accompany a Harvard Business School analysis of early-career biomedical scientists, published Oct. 7. The study was conducted by Raffaella Sadun of Harvard, Daniela Scur of Monash University and Pierre Azoulay of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In March 2025, the researchers invited 13,240 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in biomedical research labs to answer questions about their career plans. The 916 respondents reported their current intentions and recalled how they had felt six months earlier.
The share who said they were likely to remain in academia fell 22 percentage points, to 44%. The share who said they were likely or very likely to stay in the United States fell 21 points, to 72%. Satisfaction with having pursued a science doctorate also declined 16 points, to 76%.
The study measured stated intentions, not subsequent decisions. It does not establish how many respondents left academia or the country, and it does not mean that everyone who expressed doubts will move. The researchers said the decline in interest appeared among scientists in labs with secure, multiyear grants as well as those with more precarious funding.
The research was conducted during a period of significant funding uncertainty. Harvard Business School reported that in early 2025 the Trump administration froze or terminated about $3 billion in National Institutes of Health grants, affecting roughly 3,800 projects. The administration’s proposed 2026 budget called for reducing NIH spending by 39% and National Science Foundation spending by 55%; those figures were proposals, not enacted budget reductions.
International researchers also faced uncertainty over visas and immigration status. Harvard Business School reported that more than 1,400 international students and scholars had their visas revoked or immigration status terminated during the period examined. Foreign-born scientists earn about half of U.S. doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to the HBS analysis.
The authors said the effects could extend beyond universities. Academic labs train researchers who later work in industry, while university research can supply ideas and expertise to corporate research and development. If fewer early-career scientists pursue academic careers, the effects on research capacity and mentorship may become clearer over time.
Some of the funding previously frozen was later restored, Harvard Business School noted, and the study’s authors said widespread departures may never happen. Still, the AP’s interviews document researchers who have already taken positions abroad, while the survey indicates that uncertainty has shifted how some young scientists view their prospects.
The longer-term question is whether U.S. institutions can retain the people and training networks that support future discoveries. The survey does not predict how many scientists will leave, but it suggests the disruption has already influenced career plans among some of those expected to carry American research forward.
Sources: Associated Press; Harvard Business School.