Posted on behalf of Victoria Aranda

The economic and infrastructural realities of biomedical research often force young Spanish investigators to work abroad in order to continue their postgraduate research. Most of these bright minds vow to return, but many are lost to an increasing ‘brain drain’.

European agencies strive to recover these scientific talents, usually by recruiting well-established investigators to bolster local research. This was the case, for example, with oncologist Mariano Barbacid, who left a burgeoning career in the US to take up the helm of Spain’s national cancer center, CNIO, in 1998.

Now, in a role reversal that many Spanish scientists are viewing with dismay, another leading cancer researcher is packing his bags after more than two decades in Spain and moving to the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Josep Baselga, 51, trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York before returning to Spain in 1986, where he led the Oncology Institute at the Vall d’Hebrón Hospital in Barcelona. There, he oversaw a team of 18 oncologists and around 3,500 patients each year. By contrast, in his new position at Mass General, Baselga will manage 100 oncologists who treat approximately 20,000 cancer patients per year, and he’ll have an annual research budget of $50 million at his disposal.

“It’s not a brain drain,” Baselga told El Mundo, adding that he will still participate in the management of Barcelona´s cancer center. With pragmatism, he defends his move to “the best place in the world to do research,” which could ultimately benefit Spanish science as well by enabling fruitful collaborations between Boston and Barcelona, he says.

The news got opposing reactions on both sides of the pond. While Baselga’s career move was celebrated at his new institution, it elicited some alarm among the Spanish research community, who view the shift as a dangerous reversion in the migratory patterns of scientific talent.

Many Spanish scientists are laying the blame for Baselga’s move squarely at the feet of the national government, which, they say, supports too few investigators with too little money. Similar claims were also made last year after Barbacid decided to step down from the leadership of CNIO.

Baselga denies conflicts with scientific administrators, but echoes a veiled criticism to centralized funding. “There is plenty of money to fund CNIO, so why are there almost no resources devoted to other centers?” he asks.

In a country struggling to stay in the race for scientific prestige, the return of exiled scientists is vital to boost both the hopes of the scientific community abroad and the efforts of the homebound returnees, and many worry that Baselga’s departure now might set an unsettling precedent. Will homesickness still be enough to lure back successful scientists in a climate of funding cuts and an indefinite expansion freeze? Only time will tell.

Victoria Aranda, a native of Spain who trained as a scientist in the US, is an assistant editor with Nature Medicine in New York.