For decades, the U.S.was seen as a nation that prized its universities and scientific researchers.That changed when President Trump began his second term, says Megan Peters, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Irvine."It became very apparent, very quickly, that the new administration did not value higher education," she says, or the scientific research done at universities."So when I went on the job market, I started looking around overseas," Peters says.So have many other U.S.-based research scientists.An analysis by the journal Nature found that in the first quarter of 2025, U.S.
scientists submitted nearly a third more applications for jobs abroad than they had during the same period in 2024.In March 2025, a survey of more than 1,600 scientists in the U.S.found that 75% were considering leaving the U.S.Now, a growing number of prominent U.S.
researchers are reporting that they have accepted posts in countries including Europe, Canada, and the United Kingdom.Peters is one of those scientists.She will move to University College London this summer.Other prominent brain scientists heading for the U.K.
include Tamara Swaab and Ron Mangun of the University of California, Davis.The married couple have accepted positions at the University of Birmingham.The departures are, in part, a response to changes in federal funding of scientific research in the U.S.Soon after Trump took office in 2025, grants were delayed or terminated.
Universities came under fire for conducting research related to race and gender.And government funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, were reshaped to better align with White House priorities.The Trump administration maintains that all of those measures are part of an ongoing effort to restore gold standard science, reduce bureaucracy, and cut costs while conducting essential research.When the changes began to take hold, Peters was already been considering options beyond...