Greece's government quietly scrapped an 80 million euro research program designed to bring scientists back to the countr...

Greece's government quietly scrapped an 80 million euro research program designed to bring scientists back to the country, and then waited 10 months to tell anyone about it. The "Trust your Stars" initiative, backed by EU post-Covid recovery funds, received 1,241 project submissions. After a 13-month delay, 145 were selected and published on July 22, 2025. On that same day, the government had already delisted the program from Greece's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, but applicants found out only in May 2026, through a ministry statement. The Education Ministry said the program was removed because it could not be completed within the timeframe set by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility. Funds were redirected to other actions, officials said, adding there was no loss of EU resources overall. Scientists and research teams who had turned down job offers abroad while waiting for the program to start are now left with nothing. Some have filed formal legal notices demanding to know where the roughly 40 million euros in initial payments actually went, since no project work ever began. Others submitted complaints to the European Public Prosecutor's Office over concerns about the evaluation process itself. Aristides Hatzis, a professor at the University of Athens, called it a collapse of basic rule-of-law principles. He said the government had managed to turn the entire scientific community against it, both those who were selected and those who were not. In a social media post, he told young Greek scientists abroad to stay where they are and told those considering leaving to go without hesitation. Greece had made real progress overall. An OECD review found that between 2023 and 2024, 98,000 Greeks returned to the country while 69,000 left, the first net positive migration figure since the financial crisis began in 2008. But for scientists specifically, the collapse of Trust your Stars represents a significant setback to any credible brain gain strategy. #Greece #BrainDrain #Research