Greece is attempting to bring back the highly skilled professionals who left during the country’s financial crisis. However, the collapse of an €80 million ($92.6 million) research program has instead left scientists questioning whether the state can deliver on its promises.
According to a report published by Politico, the controversy centers on Trust your Stars, an ambitious research funding program intended to support Greek scientists and research teams.
The initiative, launched through Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, attracted 1,241 funding applications after a call for proposals in April 2024. The Education Ministry said 203 applicants subsequently filed objections, while the project was ultimately removed from Greece’s recovery plan following its revision.
The failure of the program has become an embarrassing setback for a government that has made reversing Greece’s brain drain a central part of its broader economic recovery strategy.
An €80 million program targeting scientists to further reverse brain drain in Greece crumbles
Trust Your Stars was designed to finance research projects involving scientists at various stages of their careers. Politico reported that 145 of the 1,241 proposals submitted were selected, raising expectations among academics who hoped the program could help create opportunities for young researchers in Greece and attract others back from abroad. But the process soon became mired in controversy.
According to Politico, researchers raised concerns about the evaluation process, while rejected applicants challenged the results. The Greek Education Ministry confirmed that 203 potential beneficiaries submitted objections by August 1, 2025. The project had already been removed from Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Plan under a Council decision approving revisions to the plan in July 2025, according to the ministry. However, the formal decision revoking its inclusion was not issued until April 28, 2026.
In a statement published in May, the Education Ministry confirmed that Trust Your Stars had been removed from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The ministry also rejected reports that €40 million ($46.3 million) had already been paid out under the project. The government said the program could not be completed within the timetable required by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Scientists say trust has been damaged
The consequences, according to Politico‘s reporting, extend beyond the loss of a single research program. Aristides Hatzis, a professor at the University of Athens, told Politico that the government’s handling of the project represented a major setback for efforts to persuade scientists to return to Greece.
Politico reported that some academics had hoped to use the funding to recruit young researchers from abroad. Among them was Petros Bouras-Vallianatos, an associate professor at the University of Athens, who had assembled a team of twenty-five young scientists, including researchers based in Britain and Germany, for a project examining medicines used during the Byzantine period.
Fortunately for those involved, the researchers had not yet relocated when the program was canceled, Politico reported. Bouras-Vallianatos, who himself returned to Greece in 2022 after a fifteen-year academic career in Edinburgh, told Politico that many scientists would like to return but that the conditions needed to make such a move viable remain insufficient. He pointed to funding and salaries as persistent problems and argued for a more independent system for allocating research funding.
Greece’s wider brain gain effort
The collapse of Trust Your Stars comes as Greece attempts to turn the page on one of the most damaging consequences of the financial crisis. An estimated 500,000 people left Greece during the crisis years, Politico reported, and many of them were young and highly educated. The exodus became known as Greece’s brain drain, depriving the country of scientists, doctors, engineers, and other skilled professionals.
The government has since launched a broader “brain regain” strategy, including tax incentives for Greeks and other skilled workers returning from abroad. Politico reported that overall migration trends have improved. Citing OECD-related data, it said that more Greeks returned than left in 2023, with 98,000 people returning during 2023-24 compared with 69,000 departures.
Nevertheless, the experience of Trust Your Stars is representative of the steeper obstacle of persuading highly qualified scientists to return when this requires more than tax incentives or appeals to national sentiment. Such an endeavor necessitates stable funding, competitive salaries, and confidence that government-backed programs will survive long enough to deliver what they promise.
A setback for scientists in the diaspora of Greece who were the focus of reversing the country’s brain drain
The Trust Your Stars controversy is particularly delicate because it affects the very people Greece hopes to attract. For researchers contemplating whether to build their careers in Athens, Thessaloniki, or abroad, the collapse of an €80 million program after a lengthy selection process sends an unwelcome signal.
The Greek government maintains that the project was removed because it could not be implemented within the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s timetable and has stressed that the change did not result in a loss of EU resources. Yet, as Politico‘s reporting shows, the damage may be harder to measure in euros.
Greece has made progress in reversing the broader migration trends that emerged during its financial crisis. Bringing back the country’s scientists, however, may prove more difficult if researchers remain unconvinced that the opportunities awaiting them at home are secure.
Related: Turning the Tide? The Profile of Greece’s Brain Gain Returnees
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