Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them

As the Trump administration cut billions of dollars in federal funding to scientific research, thousands of scientists in the US lost their jobs or grants — and governments and universities around the world spotted an opportunity.

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The “Canada Leads” programme, launched in April, hopes to foster the next generation of innovators by bringing early-career biomedical researchers north of the border.

Aix-Marseille University in France started the “Safe Place for Science” programme in March — pledging to “welcome” U.S.-based scientists who “may feel threatened or hindered in their research.”

Australia's “Global Talent Attraction Programme,” announced in April, promises competitive salaries and relocation packages.

“In response to what is happening in the US,” said Anna-Maria Arabia, head of the Australian Academy of Sciences, “we see an unparalleled opportunity to attract some of the smartest minds here.”

Since World War II, the US has invested huge amounts of money in scientific research conducted at independent universities and federal agencies. That funding helped the US to become the world's leading scientific power — and has led to the invention of cell phones and the internet as well as new ways to treat cancer, heart disease and strokes, noted Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science.

But today that system is being shaken.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has pointed to what it calls waste and inefficiency in federal science spending and made major cuts to staff levels and grant funding at the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and other agencies, as well as slashing research dollars that flow to some private universities.

The White House budget proposal for next year calls to cut the NIH budget by roughly 40 per cent and the National Science Foundation's by 55 per cent.