Spain’s Ministry of Science and the State Research Agency (AEI) have announced that more than 254 researchers from around the world applied to the Atrae program, an initiative to attract established talent of recognized international prestige to Spain. Of these, 33.5% were from researchers based in the U.S. This figure appears to confirm an ongoing exodus of U.S. researchers following Donald Trump’s attempts to exert political control over science policy in the U.S.
In 2023, the first year of the program, not a single U.S. researcher received the grant. In the second, in 2024, the number of beneficiaries from this country was 16%. In 2025, the rate doubled to 32%, said the AEI in a recent statement.
In this latest round, 37 scientists have been selected. Of these winners, 21 (56.7%) come from academic institutions in the United States, although not all of them are U.S. citizens. Out of the 254 applications received, 33.5% were from researchers based in the U.S.
Each researcher will receive an average of one million euros to establish themselves and develop their work and research group at a research center or university in Spain.
Vincenzo Calvanese, a 43-year-old researcher originally from Naples, Italy, is one of the foreign researchers who decided to take the plunge in the 2024 call for applications. That year, his group opened a new laboratory at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC) in Barcelona, funded by the Atrae grant. “It was a very simple decision,” he says.
Before arriving in Spain, Calvanese had spent 10 years in the United States — primarily at UCLA — where he experienced Donald Trump’s first presidency. From there, he moved to University College London and then to Spain. The main reason for his return to Europe, he says, has to do with the current historical moment. “You take stock, you think about your career and your lifestyle, and the possibility of having a supportive environment where you can grow,” he explains.
According to him, the situation his colleagues are facing has become more complicated with Trump in the White House. “It’s partly influencing the movement of professionals to Europe,” says this researcher, who is currently working on new methods to treat leukemia and other blood diseases. “Many of my colleagues are having a very difficult time because of the political and economic events affecting science.”
However, not all researchers can leave. “Even though they’re unhappy, some have no choice, or they stand to lose too much, so they stay,” Calvanese adds. “I’ve personally called people I thought might be interested in this grant. What I tell them is that it’s one of the few opportunities to secure the future of research and have some professional security. It’s not perfect; they still have things to work out as it’s a new program. But it does offer a rare opportunity,” he adds.
“The U.S. is taking a step backwards”
The case of the Florida hydrogeologist Audrey Sawyer, 43, is similar. Her experience at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia four years ago ultimately sealed her decision to apply for the program and leave the U.S. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity to apply. It’s an honor to be able to move my career here and contribute to research,” says this scientist who specializes in groundwater. “I had submitted the proposal before the changes in my country’s government,” she clarifies. But she acknowledges that the U.S. scientific environment has changed drastically since she left: “I’ve never seen a situation like this in the United States. I feel very bad for the researchers and students; they are very talented and are facing serious challenges.”
At the height of the Cold War, the United States consolidated its leadership in scientific research thanks to massive investment of federal funds. This reality is now under threat with Trump in the White House. “The United States is taking a step backward,” this scientist states.
The Trump administration has systematically attacked science with budget cuts and the freezing of funds and grants that support key research in biomedicine, climate change, and space exploration. This is compounded by an open war against some of the country’s most prestigious universities.
Harvard University has suffered the cancellation of federal contracts and the threat of funding withdrawals, jeopardizing the admission and retention of international students, in a dispute still being fought in the courts. “It is more important than ever that we protect the development of research,” says Sawyer. “It is a very complicated time.”
Looking at the origins of the solar system
The story of Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, 55, is different. Originally from the small northern region of Asturias in Spain, her decision to return from the United States had a strong emotional component. Her career had forced her to leave Asturias at a young age because, she explains, there was no opportunity to study astrophysics in her homeland at the time. The path she embarked on in 2009 to the U.S. led her to direct observations on some of the most advanced telescopes of our time, such as the Hubble. “I felt that I was increasingly missing my home, my system, my culture,” she says.
The astrophysicist now continues her research on the primitive materials of the solar system — linked to the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest in history — but now she does so at the Institute of Space Sciences and Technologies of Asturias (ICTEA), at the University of Oviedo, after receiving the grant in 2024. “It was a great joy to return home,” she says. “[The Atrae initiative] seems exceptional to me for mobilizing talent and bringing that talent to Spain.”
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