A few days ago the European Research Council –the community organization dedicated to promoting scientific and technological research in the old continent– said it had received a record of applications from the United States this summer.
Specifically, these would have increased – the organization reports – by 400% compared to the data recorded the previous year. What has changed since then? Two things that, however, are closely linked.
On the one hand, the tenant of the White House has changed. Donald Trump He came to power in January after winning the elections last November and one of his first measures, it should be remembered, was to launch an offensive against the university community, considering it one of the pillars of American progressivism.
Taking advantage of the headlines featuring the protests in favor of Palestine organized on the campus of the Columbia UniversityAmong other things, Trump began withdrawing federal grants and threatened that and other academic institutions with future cuts, and even legal action, if they did not comply with a series of guidelines.
In parallel, last spring the European Research Council announced that it would add an additional two million euros to the amount of money available for researchers who wish to move from the United States to the European Union. That is to say: the aforementioned researchers can now opt for total funding of up to 4.5 million euros over a period of five years.
“Other countries have seen in the American situation the opportunity to reverse a historic brain drain that for decades has made the United States the main destination for global scientific talent,” the researchers wrote shortly before this decision. Mario Mariniello y Nina Ruerof the think tank bruselense Bruegel. They thus encouraged the European Commission to take measures to join the recruitment.
In concrete figures, the increase in applications from the world’s leading economy translates into 114. The previous year – 2024 – remained at 23. The total number of applications to investigate in the European Union has also increased: from 2,534 in 2024 to 3,329 this summer. A figure that includes 538 ‘applications’ from the United Kingdom.
Regarding intra-community trafficking, that is, those researchers who want to move from one country of the European Union to another, it is Italy that leads the brain drain with 445 of its academics wanting to go to another part of the continent. In second place is Spain, with 240 applications.
In addition to all of the above, there are also particular initiatives being taken by some European countries and, above all, by some specific universities in order to retain the talent that is arriving on the continent.
In a meeting held in Brussels in mid-September to assess the present scenario, the European Commissioner for Research, Ekaterina Zaharievaconfirmed – according to the magazine Politico– that currently “there are more than seventy national and regional initiatives designed to attract researchers.”
The idea is that if a researcher from, say, the University of Chicago doubt between Belgium or Holland when moving, the advantages promoted by the talent attraction plan launched by – for example – the Leiden University get him to decide on Dutch territory.
In any case, and despite the internal competitiveness, the general climate on European campuses is optimistic. The Austrian Academy of Sciencesfor example, this week celebrated what it described as a “brain gain” directly attributable to Trump’s policies on academic and scientific research.
“They bring new ideas, new perspectives and international networks… and this represents a great advance for Austrian science and an important boost for the visibility of our research center abroad,” declared the president of the institution in a statement. Heinz Faßmannafter announcing the arrival of 25 researchers from North American campuses.
Chinese competition
Of course: Europe is not the only region that has gone out to fish for talent. Canada, Australia and several Asian capitals are also benefiting from the exodus. And then there is China, which has just launched a new visa program aimed precisely at acquiring all the foreign talent possible. His name: K.
“While the United States is raising barriers, China is lowering them,” he told Reuters an immigration lawyer called Matt Mantuel-Medici. “The Americans have shot themselves in the foot with the H-1B issue,” he explained for his part. Michael Fellerthe consulting firm’s chief strategist Geopolitical Strategyalluding to the new restrictions associated with the US visa.
To contextualize: the H-1B requires the sponsorship of a company, and even with that sponsorship, the applicant enters a lottery system from which only 85,000 places are available annually (the United States is a country of 340 million inhabitants). In addition, Trump has ordered that the fee to be paid by the company for each candidate it decides to sponsor rises to $100,000 (until now that amount ranged between $2,000 and $5,000).
In contrast, the K visa does not require any sponsorship. It does require, however, certain academic standards – although today they are not entirely clear – in addition to the language issue. And the majority of Chinese companies that could benefit from foreign talent operate in Mandarin.
All in all, although China’s main objective is to recruit those researchers who are unhappy in the United States, or those who were planning to move there but have changed their minds, its new visa is also available to European researchers.
What’s more: one of the main world leaders in the field of batteries, the Italian scientist Stefano Passerinijust accepted a job at the Nanjing Normal University.
The Italian researcher, who until now lived in Germany and was a member of the German National Academy of Scienceswill direct the new International Electrochemical Energy Storage Institute from the aforementioned university.
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