Canada poaches dozens of top US researchers for its universities
Lured by millions of new research funding from the Carney government, 48 US researchers in fields like climate and medicine will soon be moving north.
Canada is attracting numerous leading American researchers to its universities, including those from prestigious institutions like Harvard, amidst a deteriorating relationship with its southern neighbor.
Seth Guikema, a climate resiliency expert, is among those making the move, transitioning from the University of Michigan to the University of Western Ontario.
Out of 64 professors globally relocating to Canada, over 75% are coming from the United States. This influx is supported by a new Canadian government initiative that provides C$504 million ($362 million; £268 million) in funding for research in critical areas such as climate change and medicine.
The Trump administration in the US has criticized universities, alleging a dominance of left-wing ideology and diversity policies, and a failure to address purported antisemitism on campuses. The BBC reached out to the White House and the US Department of Education for comment.
Furthermore, the administration has halted federal research grants for various institutions and groups, deeming them wasteful. This climate of uncertainty is prompting researchers to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Concurrently, Canada is asserting a more prominent role on the international stage, pushing back against the US in an escalating trade dispute that recently saw a significant development regarding tariffs.
One climate researcher informed the BBC that his decision to move to Canada was partly due to increasing difficulties in his work in the US over recent years. Seth Guikema, a climate resiliency researcher at the University of Michigan and one of the 48 US researchers heading to Canada, stated he began exploring Canadian institutions for opportunities last year.
Guikema noted, "The funding environment in the US for anything related to climate and resilience has become challenging. I was looking for a good intellectual home where I could have practical impact."
Over the next eight years, Guikema plans to utilize C$8 million to develop tools for improved preparedness against natural disasters like storms and wildfires at the University of Western Ontario. The University of Michigan, his former employer, declined to comment.
On Thursday, Canada's Industry Minister Melanie Joly expressed the government's pleasure at the arrival of these "fantastic professors." When asked if the program constituted poaching US talent and if the Trump administration might view it as an escalation of the US-Canada trade war, she responded, "The US administration is taking its own decisions and we're taking ours."
Some researchers selected for the program, including Guikema, are US-born and raised. Others are Canadian nationals returning home after working abroad.
Peter Caravan, who spent two decades as a biopharmaceutical researcher and professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, appeared emotional at a Thursday news conference announcing the research appointments. Caravan will now conduct his research on improving the detection of illnesses like cancers and chronic diseases at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Steven Lamy, a professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California, contended that major grant agencies have been "cut and politicised" by the current US administration. He observed, "All of a sudden employment offers from external universities are attractive."
Stephanie Burt, an English professor at Harvard University, characterized the funding cuts as "a generational disaster for science and scientists." She told the BBC that Canada offered a "far more welcoming environment" for academics.
Despite these shifts, US universities continue to rank among the world's best, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, and Harvard all in the top five of the QS Universities Rankings.
Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, conveyed that institutions feel "helpless" in the face of federal and state budget cuts. Her deeper concern, she added, "is not the short-term brain drain," but "the possibility that the US could become less attractive as a place to pursue knowledge."