American Brain Drain Efforts

While there's always been efforts to brain drain from America, governments have stepped it up during the 2nd Trump Administration. For the past half century the smartest minds have generally flowed into America, but given the recent cuts to scientific research and the overall political climate, some of the best and brightest are being called to greener funding pastures.

I'm tracking quite a few programs, as I'm curious how many will actually take up these offers:

• A two-pronged approach from New Zealand for healthcare workers:
  • Fast-tracking registration of doctors who were trained in the US, Singapore, and Canada
  • $30MM to open up additional clinical placements for overseas-trained doctors and support the hiring of 400 nurses.
• Aix-en-Provence is reviewing first round applications for its Safe Place for Science program, allocating €15MM to attract scientists studying climate, environment, health, and human and social sciences.
• Australia’s “Global Talent Attraction Program” (first-round applications open until August btw) is capitalizing on a generational opportunity to target US scientists for permanent relocation Down Under.

So far NZ has reported 180 applications for 100 slots, no numbers released yet for Aix, and Australia is still accepting 1st round apps. It's a massive effort to move, so my hunch is that incentives have to get better or things have to get much worse stateside to really seed a flood of applicants.