You have full access to this article via your institution.
Money could become harder to come by for European scientists if the overall European Research Council pot does not dramatically increase.Credit: Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty
The number of US-based researchers applying to prestigious grants that would see them relocate to Europe has more than doubled in the last year.
According to data from the European Research Council (ERC), applications from the United States for its starting, consolidator and advanced grants to individual researchers — each worth up to €2.5 million (US$5.3 million) over five years — rose by 120% in its most recent round of calls, compared to an overall rise in applications of 17% (see Choosing Europe below).
These are the first three funding calls in which researchers moving to Europe were eligible for an extra €1 million in relocation costson top of their research grant and funds to establish their laboratories. “We have seen a clear increase in interest from US-based researchers in these new opportunities,” a spokesperson for the ERC told Nature.
Some US researchers want to leave the country. Can Europe take them?
The surge in demand could be another sign that a brain drain might be underway out of the United States, where thousands of research grants have been cut in the year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. “No doubt the uptick is a direct result of the Trump administration’s science policy, and in particular, its attacks on universities and academic freedom.” says Kenny Evans, a researcher in science policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Advanced grants — for established principal investigators — saw the greatest leap in applications, nearly quintupling from 23 to 114 applications. The ERC does not routinely publish information on the nationalities of applicants, but Kieron Flanagan, a science-policy researcher at the University of Manchester, UK, says that he suspects many of these senior researchers are Europe-born or Europe-trained, and are “opting to use the ERC grant as a mechanism to escape the US system”.
But it is not clear that Europe has the funds to absorb these extra researchers without increasing competition for existing staff. In the advanced-grant category, where overall applications to the ERC rose by 31%, success rates will fall to 8%, down from 11% in the previous year. The body expects similar percentage-point falls in the consolidator and starting grants. Applications to the 2025 call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships, which closed in September, also grew by 65% on the previous year.
The surge in applications for EU funds has been celebrated as a success for Europe, “but it is also a clear warning signal that the system is under strain”, says Nicola Dengo, president of the Brussels-based European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc). “Demand is growing faster than available resources.”
Reverse migration
The EU has pushed hard to attract researchers from the US with its ‘Choose Europe for Science’ campaign, which launched in May with promises including the boost to the ERC’s relocation costs and a new €500 million programme of long-term “super grants” of up to €7 million over 7 years.
Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data
But overall investment in science needs to be scaled up, “so that increased international interest becomes an opportunity rather than a structural issue,” says Dongo. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has budgeted €175 billion for Framework Programme 10, a follow-up to Horizon Europe starting in 2028. Eurodoc has called for a much larger budget of €220 billion, he says. “Without a substantial increase in funding, and with Europe-based researchers already facing intense competition, additional incoming mobility will inevitably further increase pressure on the system,” says Dongo.
Evans calls the success of Choose Europe “moderate”. “If you asked me six months ago, I would have thought the number of applicants would be much higher,” he says. To create traceable shifts in global talent, the EU will need to put a lot more money behind their new programmes, he says.
