Uncertainties over funding in the US under the Trump administration has kick-started a global talent race in science not seen for several decades, according to a world-leading researcher who has decided to uproot to the UK.

�ճ����government’s £54 million Global Talent Fund (GTF) was created to attract up to 80 scientists to a dozen institutions across the UK – with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) recently .

Armin Raznahan, whose work focuses on improving outcomes for young people with mental health problems, told ߣߣ��Ƶ that any move is a “unique constellation of personal and professional factors” – which for him includes being close to family, and other home comforts such as “HP and fry ups”.

Raznahan, who studied medicine at King’s College London, is leaving the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program after almost 20 years in the US to take over the prestigious W.A. Handley Chair in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford next year.

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He said the move was an incredible opportunity to join the scientific community at Oxford, where he will be a part of Merton College, as well as a chance to make science “embedded within a living, breathing, real-world healthcare system” like the NHS.

In addition, the child and adolescent psychiatrist, who was speaking in a personal capacity, said that there is broad recognition within the scientific community and the public that “things have changed within the US”.

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“There is a sense that things have certainly destabilised here…it’s always difficult to predict the future but it’s become exceptionally hard.

“The level of noise in one’s prediction of what the landscape is going to be like in two months or one year from now has suddenly just ramped up, and that makes it difficult to operate. So, I think the relative stability and predictability of the UK system relative to the US is something that must be factored in.”

A number of top scientists have announced that they are leaving the US this year amid large-scale cuts to federal funding under President Trump.

“These factors are obviously causing disruptions to the research ecosystem in the US,” said Sven Truckenbrodt, who has joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) from a research not-for-profit in California.

“It’s not like it was zero factor but, for me personally, other factors were more impactful. In my estimation, [the LMB] is the most exciting place to be in the entirety of Europe when it comes to brain mapping."

While the UK’s new scheme is not alone in vying for talent, it was “very well timed” with the developments in the US, the neurobiologist said.

“I think it has kicked off a race for talent that we have not really seen in that sense for a couple of decades because the US was just such a clear winner when it came to attracting talent, and that’s definitely changing.

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“I think the UK is being very, very strategic about making use of this window of opportunity.”

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Truckenbrodt, whose pioneering work has discovered a new way of mapping how the brain works, was able to use the GTF to obtain highly specialised microscopes for his research needs.

“The most difficult phases of any research programme are the first few years where you really need to get things off the ground, and for that [the GTF] has been a huge accelerator to have access to that large equipment. I was quite amazed that there’s such a quick turnaround on decisions for such large funding.”

�ճ����funding, which is administered by UK Research and Innovation, will cover all eligible costs, including both relocation and research expenses, as well as full visa costs for dependants. The lead researchers are also expected to bring up to 10 individuals to support their research projects from abroad.

Truckenbrodt said he had already received a lot of very strong applications to join his lab from researchers in the US and elsewhere – which he credits to the “disruptions” in the US.

Alongside philanthropic funders such as the Wellcome Trust and new research agencies such as Aria, the “funding environment in the UK at the moment is just spectacular”, he said.

“It’s just a fantastic combination of opportunities that are very difficult to find elsewhere. On top of it, the UK now has access again to the European Horizon programme as well, but that’s really just the cherry on the top.”

Also part of the initiative, renowned neuroscientist Baljit Khakh will return to Cardiff University, where he gained his undergraduate degree, as the new director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, from UCLA.

Cardiff’s vice-chancellor Wendy Larner said it was a “coup” for the university, for Wales and for UK science to attract a leading expert of this calibre.

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Meanwhile, in February Hassan Salem is to join the John Innes Centre, where he will lead research on plant-insect interactions, from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biology.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com