Since 2025, the Trump administration has frozen or terminated 8,007 federal grants totaling up to $177 billion across all U.S. agencies, causing the departure of more than 10,000 STEM PhDs from the federal government. The rate of Physics PhD graduates leaving the U.S. reached its highest level in 30 years in 2025, while the departure rate for non-U.S. citizens doubled. The European Union launched the ‘Choose Europe for Science’ program worth 500 million euros to attract these researchers, and U.S. applications to the European Research Council nearly quintupled, rising from 23 to 114 for senior grants. Europe faces talent shortages in life sciences and semiconductors but must overcome obstacles including lower salaries, bureaucracy, and energy infrastructure problems.
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