‘We Are Witnessing a New Brain Drain’ as Scientists Flee America for France

Aix Marseille University in France has said that 40 U.S. scientists have “answered the call” it put out earlier this month offering safe harbor to fleeing Americans. Scientists in the U.S. under the Trump regime are facing a sudden loss of funding and stricter regulations on speech and areas of research. According to Aix Marseille University President Eric Berton, some of them will find a home in France.

In a press release about its “Safe Space for Science” initiative, the University announced that the 40 U.S. scientists included people from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute for Health, and George Washington University. It said that most of their research topics were related to “health (LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), the environment and climate change…as well as the humanities and social sciences…and astrophysics.”

Aix Marseille University put out the call to American scientists on March 7 as news continued that the Trump administration was pulling funding from many universities and putting heavy restrictions on research topics. “We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Benton said on March 12. “We will do everything possible to help as many scientists as possible continue their research. But we cannot meet all the requests alone.” He then called on the French and European governments for help.

The Trump administration has been destructive to science and research in America in ways it will take generations to understand. Many colleges and research institutes rely on federal funding to make breakthroughs, and federal funding has vanished. Last night, UMass Chan—a public medical school in Massachusetts—announced a hiring freeze and sent out an email to previously accepted students telling them they had rescinded their admission.

“Due to ongoing uncertainties related to federal funding of biomedical research, UMass Chan, along with many of our peer universities, is facing significant challenges in ensuring stable dissertation research opportunities for incoming students,” the email said. “Unfortunately, as a result, we must rescind all offers of admission for the Fall 2025 term.”

“This is not a decision that we made lightly, and we understand how disappointing this news may be. Based upon your strong academic qualification and potential, we sincerely regret that circumstances beyond our control have led to this outcome.”

UMass Chan Medical School is a major researcher into the treatment of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The single biggest funder of research into the disease was federal NIH grants, which gave the school around $50 million every year. That money’s gone because the Trump administration has ended hundreds of active NIH research grants.

The University of Pennsylvania has also told students it can no longer take them. A professor at the University told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the loss of funding was sudden and came after many people had already been selected for graduate programs. “We go through hundreds of applications, we interviewed dozens of finalists, and basically all that work was just for naught. We just wasted half of those people’s time because our list just got cut by more than half,” they said.

Aix Marseille University said it had already put aside $16 million to host three U.S. scientists for three years. In its press release, it said it’s working with the local French government to “facilitate the arrival of scientists and their families in Marseille and the region” and that this will include “employment, housing, access to schools…transportation, [and] visas.”