A survey by academics at MIT, Harvard, and Australia's Monash University reveals the US is losing its next generation of scientists. Among junior biomedical researchers who responded, a third who once envisaged academic careers had changed their minds by early 2025, with some PhD students and postdoctoral researchers rethinking plans to stay in the country.

The survey, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, captures stated intentions of young scholars affected by funding cuts and executive orders from the White House. Raffaella Sadun of Harvard Business School told the Harvard Gazette the survey began early last year as billions in grants from the NIH and National Science Foundation were terminated or frozen under Donald Trump's anti-DEI crusade.

More than 900 researchers from 134 institutions replied. Those wanting to stay in academia fell from 66% to 44%, and those wishing to remain in the US dropped from 93% to 72%. Authors describe young researchers as "the canary in the coal mine" for US scientific research.

An imminent White House executive order may install a political board to vet all NIH grants. Brady West, a statistician at the University of Michigan, said the notion of "woke" science irritated him and feared young researchers were walking away from federal research, leaving potentially world-changing ideas unrealised.