Finland has backed six permanent university professorships, while Australia’s Monash University has recruited scientists from U.S. campuses, the Associated Press reported, amid uncertainty over American research grants.
The University of Helsinki received €15 million from the Research Council of Finland (RCF) to recruit six professors in 2026. Council funding runs for five years, while the university says the appointments are permanent. The RCF allocated €50 million to recruit researchers from abroad as part of an effort to strengthen Finnish universities’ research profiles.
University of Helsinki professor Halley Froehlich joined May 1 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research covers fisheries and aquaculture. Froehlich told the Associated Press that colleagues’ grants had been postponed or canceled and that she feared losing future support for her climate research. She also cited school safety and gun violence in explaining her family’s decision to leave.
In Australia, Monash associate professor James Letts brought his laboratory to Melbourne and began work in early May. Monash senior lecturer María Maldonado joined its Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The Associated Press reported that both previously worked at the University of California, Davis, and that uncertainty over U.S. grants contributed to their move. Monash said its EMERGE program had recruited 11 researchers by June 25, although only four had started. The university cites research facilities and academic freedom among its attractions.
The American Institute of Physics found that 29% of non-U.S. citizens who earned U.S. physics doctorates in the 2024-25 academic year lived abroad the following winter, compared with 16% of the previous class. That survey recorded where graduates lived, not why they moved. Separately, the Association of American Universities Data Exchange found that offers of doctoral admission for fall 2026 fell 15% from a year earlier across 55 member institutions. The association linked the decline to unpredictable federal funding. Neither measure provides a nationwide count of researchers who left because of grant uncertainty.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed requiring senior appointees to review proposed discretionary awards before issuance against agency and presidential priorities. Peer reviewers’ recommendations would remain advisory. White House spokesperson Liz Huston told the Associated Press that President Donald Trump was seeking to eliminate waste while maintaining U.S. leadership in scientific innovation.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says the current spending law prevents it from implementing revisions to the federal Uniform Guidance through Dec. 11.
