Discovering the impacts of brain drain and disinvestment

Throughout 2025, proposed cuts to federal science funding and workforce reductions through voluntary reduction in force programs by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) across scientific agencies have caused concern about the impact on wildlife conservation. New studies published by Nature have begun to quantify the loss of PhD-holding individuals from federal agencies and the impact on scientific research.

The most common reasons for PhD departures were retirements and quitting, followed by termination. Nature examined Office of Personnel Management data and found that the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lost the highest percentage of PhD-holding staff of any of the federal agencies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost 57 PhD-holding workers. Across all 14 governmental agencies, 10,109 doctoral-trained experts left their jobs in 2025. On average, the agencies collectively lost three times more experts in 2025 than in 2024. Nature also presented a series of graphs that highlighted the impact of administration on science, including declines in the number of foreign students due to visa concerns and decreases in National Science Foundation funding, with 1,996 NSF grants canceled or suspended.

Read more about the loss of PhD personnel and the impact of the administration in Nature.