The brain drain of academic talent from France to the United States is increasing, with an especially pronounced exodus among top biologists and economists, says a Paris-based think tank. “The acceleration of French scientific immigration toward the United States is recent and worrying,” says a report, “Gone for Good?,” from the Institut Montaigne.

Ioanna Kohler, director of policy programs at the French-American Foundation, in New York, who wrote the report, said its publication comes at a particularly “favorable time to discuss this issue of brain drain,” because of the flurry of higher-education reforms the French government has enacted since 2007. French higher education and research need to be more attractive in general, not just to academics, she said.

The report’s intention, she said, is not a protectionist one, but rather to create greater awareness of France’s rich academic resources outside the country. “We have these great people who are working outside France, and we could leverage this network, but we need to identify first who they are,” Ms. Kohler said.

The report suggests a series of recommendations, including the development of an online portal that would serve as a central source of job announcements and other news.