L@B Brief - June 2025
30 June 2025
To download a pdf of June's L@b brief, click here
In this month's issue:
WWEM becomes ESS – would you like a speaking slot?
Lab construction and upgrade projects: Vietnam, the Gambia, the US, Australia and the UK…
Export news: Korean RoHS/WEEE regs now affect lab equipment...
Company news: Automation partner chosen by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine...
GAMBICA events and Industry events – full resume of exhibitions available to you in 2025
Comment: Is the US brain drain to our benefit?
SCIENTISTS IN the United States fear the country is on the edge of a historic brain drain and that the global map of scientific leadership will be re-drawn as a result.
President Trump’s deep cuts to federal research grants have created a hostile environment for many scientists, especially those working in public health, climate science, and research that touches on diversity or global equity. Thousands of grants have been terminated since January, pushing early-career researchers to ask whether they can still pursue their work on American soil.
A Nature survey in March found that 75% of US scientists have considered leaving the country.
Research doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It runs on ideas, talent, and yes, instruments. When funding collapses and researchers are forced to abandon their work or migrate to more supportive countries, lab equipment sits idle, orders shrink, and the entire supply chain suffers. The cancellation of 2,400 National Institute of Health grants in just the first half of 2025 isn’t a bureaucratic hiccup. It’s a dismantling of scientific infrastructure that took decades to build.
And while the US is pulling back, others are rolling out the red carpet. The EU’s new Choose Europe for Science initiative offers €500 million in research grants to American scientists—an open invitation to relocate and continue their work without political interference. Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany are also aggressively courting displaced talent. And in the UK we have had some really significant announcements about funding for science (see UK News below).
For lab suppliers, this shift represents a major opportunity.
The global demand for scientific equipment isn’t shrinking—it’s migrating. Countries investing in their research base, from Western Europe to parts of Asia and even some African nations, will require more lab infrastructure, not less.
Of course US based suppliers will also be realigning their sales strategies and channels to emerging research hubs, not least the UK, but we have an advantage – the time to pursue it is now - before others muscle in!
Toodle pip!
Jacqueline