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The EU has seen a surge in interest from American academics applying for grants, as US researchers increasingly look for options abroad in response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education.
The EU received a record number of applications for its top research and innovation grants this year, including a tripling of US bids for a key fund compared with 2024.
“In general, it’s not positive what has happened,” the EU’s research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva told the Financial Times, referring to the situation in the US. “We are not celebrating what is happening with scientists, but we want to provide those scientists opportunities to continue their work.”
Trump’s attacks on higher education have included cuts in funding and restrictions on academic freedom, leading to initiatives from other countries to lure researchers abroad.
Applications to the European Research Council (ERC), the EU’s funding organisation for basic research, and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the EU’s initiative for doctoral and postdoctoral research, hit all-time highs in 2025.
Zaharieva did not go as far as saying Trump was helping Europe win the race for talent. “The fierce competition is about talent, not about funds,” she said. “Everyone wants to attract talented people.”
ERC grants aimed at early career researchers saw a 22 per cent increase in applicants compared with last year, with a record 4,807 proposals. Nearly 250 of those came from outside Europe, including 169 from the US — nearly triple the 2024 figure.
Applications for ERC grants targeting more senior researchers were up 31 per cent from last year and 82 per cent from 2023.
Meanwhile, the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships received 17,058 applications — the most for any funding initiative in the 40-year history of the EU’s research framework programmes.
For the Bulgarian commissioner, the increased interest from researchers in Europe is part of the “Choose Europe” strategy launched in May, which wants to help innovative companies to operate and grow in the bloc.
Earlier this week, she had a meeting with several private investors to establish the Scaleup Europe fund, which is set to invest in the European companies in strategic sectors, such as artificial intelligence, quantum, semiconductor and biotech. Still, European tech companies have historically often had to turn to US markets for investment.
The potential private investors include Novo Holdings and Denmark’s EIFO sovereign wealth fund and Spain’s Criteria Caixa. The goal is for the fund to do its first investments in the spring of next year. The idea was to start with an initial budget of €2,5bn, Zaharieva said, which would then grow to €5bn.
The Trump administration has cancelled billions of dollars in federal research funding to US universities this year, as it seeks budget cuts overall and the elimination of grants on topics including diversity and climate change that it considers not aligned with its policies.
It has frozen funding as a way to pressure academic institutions led by Harvard to overhaul their governance and promote “viewpoint diversity” on campuses, prompting several academics and students to seek places in other countries.
It has also imposed tougher disclosure requirements on universities abroad that receive US federal funding, including scrutiny of additional funding from other countries and controls over intellectual property.