One month after the inauguration of President Donald Trump's second administration, the U.S. scientific community has plunged into unprecedented chaos. President Trump signed an executive order right after his inauguration on Jan. 20 to cancel or freeze research and international support funds worth hundreds of billions of dollars and lay off thousands of researchers. This is part of an attempt to drastically reduce government expenditure and personnel.
The Trump administration is shaking the U.S. scientific community and heralding seismic shifts in the international scientific community. Holden Thorp, editor of the international journal "Science," noted at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting held in Boston in mid-February, "The reason the United States could lead global science was continuous investment in basic research," adding, "This action will greatly reduce research activities at universities and research institutes and fundamentally weaken the international competitiveness of U.S. science."
The cuts in research funding by the Trump administration are causing major research institutions to halt research projects and increasing the likelihood that foreign researchers residing in the U.S. will leave due to visa issues and a lack of funding. The domestic scientific community has forecast that the Trump administration's policies may paradoxically provide an opportunity to attract scientific talent. China is already changing its admission policies to attract overseas scientific talent.
◇U.S. budget cuts hinder scientific advancement
With the Trump administration pushing for a federal budget cut of $2 trillion (about 2.8 trillion won), major research institutions, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH), are facing significant budget cuts and staff reductions. The NSF and NIH are regarded as key drivers of U.S. science, overseeing core research on cancer, quantum computing, and responses to rising sea levels. They fund thousands of research projects annually, supporting the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of researchers and university research staff, but they cannot avoid this budget cut crisis.
The NIH, which accounts for a significant portion of the operating costs of universities and government research institutes, has been asked to limit the indirect cost rate on research grants from the previous average of 40% to 15%. Indirect costs stem from expenses for administrative personnel hires and laboratory maintenance. An annual research funding cut of about $4 billion (about 5.76 trillion won) is expected. Currently, the proposal to cut indirect costs has been temporarily suspended due to a federal ruling.
Some universities and medical research institutes are reducing the enrollment of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical field in anticipation of the NIH research funding cuts planned by the Trump administration. It is reported that enrollment has been reduced by up to 60%. This means that more than half of professionals with doctorate degrees cannot find jobs in the U.S. Universities, which had already informally notified students of their acceptance, are causing confusion by belatedly announcing rejection.
Top U.S. universities, including Columbia University, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and North Carolina State University, have halted hiring for professors and staff. If the NIH budget cuts are finalized, the reduction in recruitment or hiring will likely prolong, leading to a cascading effect. University officials are concerned that similar budget cuts may occur at other research institutions.
◇While the U.S. faces a crisis, China is rising in science
China has seized the opportunity of the crisis in the U.S. scientific community to attract overseas Chinese talent. Fudan University in Shanghai has relaxed its admission requirements for doctoral program applicants in its recruitment plan for the 2025 academic year. Previously, a degree from a Chinese university was a prerequisite for entering the doctoral program in China, but to attract global talent, the doors have been opened to graduates from the world's top 100 universities.
Tsinghua University, regarded as the top university in China, announced last August that it would implement an admission system for doctoral programs targeting Chinese students from prestigious overseas universities. In October of last year, Xi'an Jiaotong University stated that it would operate a joint education program for doctoral candidates from overseas universities in four fields: mathematics, materials science and engineering, computer science, and environmental science.
The Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) argued, "This is intertwined with the crisis that U.S. universities are recently halting or reducing graduate recruitments and might massively cut funding," noting, "The trend reflects an effort to bring back young talents who once left for the United States."
Policies to support the return of overseas study talents are leading to tangible results. According to a job placement survey report released on the 20th by the job platform Zhaopin, the number of overseas students who returned to China to seek employment has increased by 1.44 times compared to 2018, and a 7% increase compared to the previous year was observed.
◇Korea is belatedly collecting opinions... countermeasures expected by May
The South Korean government has finally begun to formulate measures. The Ministry of Science and ICT held a meeting on overseas talent attraction strategies at the National Research Foundation of Korea on the 18th. Eleven institutions, including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and five major science and technology specialized universities and the National Science and Technology Research Council (NST), participated.
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it would compile the opinions raised at the meeting and announce countermeasures for attracting overseas talent in May. Lee Chang-yoon, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "It is a well-known fact that in a situation of declining population domestically, we must secure more talent from abroad," adding, "We have been supporting at a mediocre level until now, but we intend to prepare concrete plans with a sense of problem."
At the meeting, various institutional improvement measures were proposed, from the research funding support system to ways to improve the living conditions of foreign researchers. Jeong Gyu-yeol, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), emphasized the importance of stable research funding to attract overseas scholars or talented individuals. He suggested that the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) should create a separate program for foreign scholars to establish a long-term research environment in Korea and that excellent young talents could be attracted through the networks of overseas scholars.
Lee Chi-ho, a research fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), stated, "Foreign researchers find it difficult to conduct research in Korea due to language barriers and complex administrative systems," and emphasized the need for an open research environment where research can be conducted without knowledge of Korean, as well as institutional improvements that can be internationally recognized. He suggested, "Major research institutions, including the four technology universities, should have an internationalized organizational structure and increase the ratio of foreign personnel to strengthen global competitiveness.
Issues outside the laboratory were also highlighted. A professor from KAIST who attended the meeting said, "Outstanding scientists from abroad are already individuals with guaranteed credit, yet it's difficult for them to obtain loans from financial institutions in Korea," and added, "Even if a foreign scholar has received a top credit score in the U.S., they cannot have that score recognized in Korea, leading to situations where even mid-term loans are unattainable." He stated, "It is necessary to simplify complex systems in the administrative processing and introduce a system that could be internationally accepted."
◇Scholars say an innovative research environment is needed to attract talent
Domestic scientific scholars argue that policies are necessary to make Korea a research hub in order to attract overseas talent. Koo Bon-kyung, the director of the IBS Genome Editing Research Group, who is the first researcher affiliated with a domestic research institute to receive the European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant, stated, "The current research funding support system in Korea is designed around distribution, limiting the cultivation of world-class scientists," adding, "We must establish a flagship research funding system that can capture the attention of overseas researchers to secure competitiveness."
China is making concerted efforts in human resource development by shifting from the Thousand Talents Plan to the Ten Thousand Talents Plan. The goal is to cultivate 10,000 follow-up talents by providing research funding and infrastructure support to 1,000 top talents and leading the global scientific community.
Europe is also establishing a full-cycle support system for junior, mid-class, and senior researchers, centered on the ERC program, to attract foreign talent. The Director General stated, "Europe's research funding system has been a driving force in attracting talent from the U.S. and establishing itself as a global science hub."
He suggested that Korea should develop a talent attraction plan, such as a fellowship program that can sustain top scientific talents from graduate students to leaders for 5-10 years. He also stated that housing and educational facilities must be expanded and an English-friendly work environment should follow.
Kim Bit-naeri, a distinguished professor in the Department of Life Sciences at Seoul National University and a world-renowned scholar in the field of ribonucleic acid (RNA), stated, "Foreign professors encounter difficulties in administrative tasks, such as the research funding application process," and proposed that universities should secure administrative support personnel to assist foreign professors' initial settlement and consider providing support for about three years during their settling period.
Professor Kim added, "To help the influx of foreign students, the visa system is being improved, and universities need to actively promote this," noting, "It would also be good if private scholarship programs that support foreign students, such as those provided by POSTECH, are expanded."