Canada Is Poaching America’s Top Scientists

Canada is taking advantage of growing uncertainty within the US academic system by offering hundreds of millions of dollars to researchers willing to move north, according to Bloomberg.

The Canadian government has committed C$504 million, or roughly $362 million, to support 64 scientists and scholars joining universities across the country. Three quarters of the recruits currently work in the United States, many at institutions including Harvard, MIT and the University of North Carolina. The remaining researchers are arriving from a dozen other countries, including China, Japan, Germany and the UK. Nearly half of the group coming from the US are Canadian citizens returning home.

The new arrivals include Sara Seager, a leading planetary scientist leaving MIT for the University of Toronto, and MIT materials scientist James LeBeau. The University of British Columbia is adding Brian Kuhlman, whose protein research was connected to work recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Harvard computational biologist Curtis Huttenhower, who studies the relationship between microorganisms and human health.

Bloomberg writes that each researcher will receive support over an eight-year period, with their work concentrated in fields Canada considers strategically important, including health care, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, environmental science and commercially promising technologies.

The recruitment drive comes as US universities face federal research cuts, a more restrictive immigration environment and continuing disputes with the Trump administration. Canadian university officials say those pressures have left some researchers questioning their long-term prospects in the United States, creating an opening for Canada to strengthen its own academic institutions.

The awards are part of a much larger plan introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government last year. Ottawa intends to spend C$1.7 billion over 12 years to bring more than 1,000 researchers to Canada, including up to 100 internationally recognized scholars selected for heavily funded research chairs.

Canada has also proposed a faster immigration process for H-1B visa holders affected by changes in the United States, although that program has not yet begun. The European Union is pursuing a similar strategy through a €500 million effort to attract scientists interested in leaving the US.

Canadian officials are expected to name another group of research chairs in the coming months.