{"id":9575,"date":"2025-07-18T16:48:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=9575"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:48:45","slug":"hunting-for-brains-fleeing-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2025\/07\/18\/hunting-for-brains-fleeing-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunting for Brains Fleeing America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s campaigns and decisions against American universities\u2014such as the ban on foreign student admissions at Harvard and elsewhere\u2014undermine one of the pillars of U.S. power and offer Europe a chance to attract talent. But to bridge the gap with the U.S. and China, Europe needs structural reforms; national initiatives alone are not enough. Attracting top researchers is not sufficient\u2014they must also be retained. Concrete proposals to revitalize Europe\u2019s knowledge system can be found in the Draghi Report, which recommends three key actions: strengthening the European Research Council, introducing the role of the \u201cEU Professor,\u201d and creating a program dedicated to centers of excellence. Only in this way can Europe return to the frontier of global research.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on the best parts of the American university system have raised many questions. The ban imposed on Harvard to recruit foreign students is just one of the latest, disruptive moves. Whatever the underlying goal, the potential economic damage to the United States could far outweigh any benefits. On this side of the Atlantic, the Trump administration\u2019s iconoclastic offensive has rightly been seen as a historic opportunity to regain the ability to attract talent\u2014a capacity that Europe lost starting with the dark years of Nazism and fascism.<\/p>\n

Talent Attracts Talent<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After World War II, Germany was able to quickly rebuild its physical capital, but not its human capital. The flight of scientists like John von Neumann and Hermann Weyl deprived the country not only of two extraordinary mathematicians but also of their ability to attract others. That capacity migrated with them to the United States, hindering the revival of German academia. Today, Trump\u2019s policies are disrupting these mechanisms and offer Europe a concrete chance to strengthen its knowledge system, close the gap that has widened over the years with the United States, and counter the increasingly evident gap now emerging with China. It is an opportunity to reverse the brain drain that, since the postwar period, has driven senior academics, brilliant students, young researchers, inventors, and knowledge entrepreneurs toward the United States\u2014drawn by academic freedom, generous resources, flexibility, high salaries, and above all, the chance to work with other talented individuals. Because talent attracts more talent. But the opposite is also true: losing the best sets off a vicious cycle, where the departure of one pushes others to follow.<\/p>\n

Some figures confirm both the challenge and the opportunity for Europe. The Old Continent boasts high average university quality, but struggles at the top. According to the Nature Index 2024<\/em>, only three EU universities are among the world\u2019s top fifty. China counts twenty-two; North America, nineteen. This fragility threatens Europe\u2019s technological positioning, increasingly distant from the innovation frontier.<\/p>\n

The gap is not just symbolic: today, global innovation is concentrated around major hubs born from centers of research excellence. The top ten alone generate about two-thirds of the world\u2019s patents.<\/p>\n

European Science Must Overcome Its Own Limitations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are three key points to consider when shaping a European strategy.<\/p>\n

First, while the difficulties of the U.S. academic system offer Europe an opportunity, the limitations of European science are deep and long-standing. A policy aimed at bringing it back to the innovation frontier is necessary and urgent, regardless of what happens in the United States.<\/p>\n

Second, the goal is not to cheer the weakening of the American university system. The aim is not to benefit from others\u2019 crises, but to improve through one\u2019s own merits. Trump\u2019s policies may slightly lower the cost of advancement, but they do not eliminate the growing gap with China, nor the need to elevate Europe\u2019s research and education systems by creating institutions of excellence comparable to Harvard, Columbia, or MIT.<\/p>\n

Over recent decades, many young European talents have benefited from U.S. PhD programs, considered among the best in many disciplines. On the one hand, this phenomenon slowed the development of European programs\u2014since a PhD\u2019s success depends greatly on student quality. On the other hand, it enabled brilliant minds to thrive. Their return home or collaborations with European researchers had positive spillovers for European science\u2014fostering technology transfer, the spread of scientific knowledge, and the raising of quality standards.<\/p>\n

Third, isolated, ad hoc initiatives promoted by individual governments or universities may attract a few researchers from the U.S., but they are insufficient to structurally transform the European research system. These are sporadic efforts, lacking coherent strategy and often underfunded. For example, Spain launched a \u20ac135 million three-year program; France and the Netherlands adopted similar measures; and the European Commission proposed a \u20ac500 million package for 2025\u20132027 under the new \u201cChoose Europe for Science\u201d program, which includes additional funding to help researchers who move to Europe start their own lab or research team. As noted by Cesar Hidalgo in El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, a \u20ac200\u2013250 million annual budget is far below the yearly return on a single American university\u2019s endowment, like that of Harvard or Yale. And while those returns renew every year, these funds are temporary. European efforts may attract talent now, but the risk of later emigration remains. To attract the best scientists in a lasting way, Europe needs genuine centers of excellence\u2014capable of offering stable conditions, adequate resources, and a fertile ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The Draghi Report\u2019s Recommendations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So far, the only comprehensive policy aimed at revitalizing European research and fostering academic excellence is the set of measures proposed in the Draghi Report. The document calls for leveraging the example and structure of the European Research Council (ERC), which has earned a solid reputation thanks to its focus on excellence and impartial evaluation systems. It outlines three complementary structural recommendations.<\/p>\n

First, the ERC\u2019s calls for proposals should be expanded: the goal is to double their number while maintaining the funding per recipient unchanged, making the European research ecosystem more attractive to frontier science. Today, the ERC funds projects led by top researchers for five-year periods, but the program remains undersized: it reaches too narrow an audience and has yet to fully realize its potential.<\/p>\n

Second, attracting talent is not enough: it must also be retained. European research institutions\u2014mostly publicly funded\u2014struggle to offer competitive compensation once the \u201creturn grants\u201d expire, particularly in lower-income member states. To address this issue, the EU should introduce the role of the \u201cEU Professor\u201d: a scholar of exceptional international stature, hired as a European official and treated\u2014also fiscally\u2014on par with the Union\u2019s highest-level employees. Selection should follow the ERC\u2019s well-established methodology. Placement would be based on a \u201cdouble coincidence of desires\u201d: the EU Professor chooses a host research institution, which in turn agrees to fully integrate them into its ranks. This process would ensure equal opportunity and could strengthen institutions aiming to achieve global academic excellence.<\/p>\n

Finally, to promote the emergence of leading European research institutions\u2014where a critical mass of talent operates in close physical proximity\u2014the report proposes a new institutional ERC program (ERC-I). Unlike the current Horizon Europe<\/em> framework, ERC-I would support specific research centers, labs, or departments. The program should offer multi-year funding, tied to formal evaluations, enabling selected units to pursue ambitious goals with accountability. France\u2019s LabEx initiative\u2014based on multidisciplinary projects and the development of new research themes\u2014represents a promising model and potential source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luigi Guiso is a professor of finance at the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance in Rome. He directed the finance research program at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London.<\/em><\/p>\n

Claudio Michelacci is a professor of economics at the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) and a fellow of the European Economic Association.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s campaigns and decisions against American universities\u2014such as the ban on foreign student admissions at Harvard and elsewhere\u2014undermine one of the pillars of U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5742,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[63,351],"class_list":["post-9575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHunting for Brains Fleeing America - Rivista Eco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2025\/07\/18\/hunting-for-brains-fleeing-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hunting for Brains Fleeing America - 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