Canada Is Paying Big Money to Bring US Researchers North — and Massachusetts Is Losing the Most

Canada has launched a major program to bring top scientists and researchers from American universities to Canadian ones. The Canadian government is spending about $1.2 billion US dollars to make it happen. So far, 64 researchers from around the world have agreed to move, and 48 of them are coming from the United States. Of those 48, eight are leaving Massachusetts — more than from any other single place in the world.

The program is called the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs program. It promises each researcher guaranteed funding for eight years, with the chance to apply for four more. Some scientists have already started their new jobs in Canada, while others will move before the next school year begins. Canada has also announced plans to recruit a second group of researchers in the future.

Several well-known Massachusetts scientists are among those heading north. Phil Zamore studied RNA — a molecule that helps cells work — at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, and is now moving to McGill University in Montreal. He said funding cuts, canceled grants, and shifting government rules under the Trump administration made his work much harder. 'Things just became crystal clear that there are a very large number of remarkably intelligent and clever people that think scientists are the problem, not the solution,' Zamore said.

Zamore has had a long and successful career in Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard, earning degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology, and later did research at MIT before becoming a professor at UMass Chan. He helped develop a drug approved by the FDA in 2018 to treat a nerve disease, and he holds over 100 patents. When he moves to McGill, he will bring four other researchers from his lab with him.

Ray Fisman is an economist at Boston University who is also moving to the University of Toronto next year. He has spent years studying hidden influences in US politics, and his new focus will be on political divisions and views on corruption in Canada. Fisman grew up in Canada and moved to the United States 30 years ago, so he described leaving Boston University as bittersweet. 'I have loved being at BU,' he said. 'I am not trying to get away.'

Ethan Zuckerman, a professor at UMass Amherst, studies how social media, search engines, and artificial intelligence affect society. Canada will pay him about $715,000 US dollars per year for eight years — a level of guaranteed funding he called 'unheard of.' He said when someone offered him the chance to work at a top university with funding that could last the rest of his career, he knew he had to seriously consider it. Now in Canada, he will study how the country can compete with the United States in the area of platform power.

Leaders at Massachusetts universities are worried about what all of this means for the state. Marty Meehan, the president of the University of Massachusetts system, said he has been warning about this problem for years. He noted that the European Union and China are also working hard to attract top researchers away from the United States. 'Other countries are investing billions of dollars in researchers and making it easier for them to do their work, while our country makes it more difficult,' Meehan said.

A report from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce found that universities and hospitals together create $156 billion in economic output and nearly $4 billion in tax revenue every year in Massachusetts. They also support more than 800,000 jobs, meaning that losing top researchers could cause serious damage to the local economy. Rob McCaron, who leads a group representing private colleges in the state, said the departures are 'a tragedy for the researchers and a tragedy for our region.' He added that the work these scientists do will ultimately benefit everyone.

Meehan is urging the Massachusetts Legislature to pass a law called the DRIVE Act, which Governor Maura Healey proposed last year. The law would invest $400 million in research at universities across the state. So far, the bill has not passed and remains stuck in debate as part of a larger set of economic laws. Meehan said the state is moving too slowly to respond. 'Frankly, I don't think there's enough of a sense of urgency,' he said. 'We can't wait until this is all over and hope that we survive.'