2023-12-12 09:26:54
08:31: War and the brain drain
Ukrainian scientists, whether in exile or remaining in their country, have seen their research activity drop by 20% since the Russian invasion of their country in February 2022, according to a study published Tuesday. This is the first time since the start of the conflict that a survey has attempted to measure the impact of the war on the Ukrainian scientific community, underlines Gaétan de Rassenfosse, first author of this publication in the journal Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.
Around 2,500 scientists responded to the questionnaire asking them about their research activities. Some 18.5% of respondents fled the conflict. A figure very close to the general emigration rate of the Ukrainian refugee population in Europe – eight million people according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) -, underlines the study. A majority of these researchers were hosted by European scientific institutions – many in Germany and Poland – but under precarious contracts, rarely exceeding one year (only 14% of cases).
Between 25% and 40% of exiles also devote 10% of their time to new work, to the detriment of their initial fields of research.
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