The Fallout:
As Trump’s Policies Worry Scientists, France and Others Put Out a Welcome Mat
European universities have begun recruiting researchers who lost
their jobs in the administration’s cost-cutting efforts, or are anxious
over perceived threats to academic freedom.
Just hours after opening its new program for American researchers called
Safe
Place For Science in reaction to Trump administration policies, Aix Marseille University received its first application.
Since then, the university in the south of
France known for its science programs, has received about a dozen
applications per day from what the school considers “scientific asylum”
seekers.
Other universities in France and elsewhere
in Europe have also rushed to save American researchers fleeing drastic
cuts to jobs and programs by the Trump administration, as well as
perceived attacks on whole fields of research.
At stake are not just individual jobs, but
the concept of free scientific inquiry, university presidents say. They
are also rushing to fill huge holes in collective research caused by
the cuts, particularly in areas targeted
by the Trump administration, including studies of climate change,
public health, environmental science, gender and diversity.
If the movement becomes a trend, it could
mean the reversal of the long-term brain drain that has seen generations
of scientists move to the United States. And while at least some
Europeans have noted that the changes in the
United States provide a unique opportunity to build stronger European
research centers, most academics say that competition is not the
short-term motivation.
“This program is ultimately linked to
indignation, to declare what is happening in the United States is not
normal,” said Éric Berton, president of Aix Marseille University, which
has earmarked 15 million euros (nearly $16,300,000)
for 15 three-year positions.
He said the number of openings “wasn’t much,” but the goal was to “give them a little hope.”
In France, Aix Marseille University is considered a leader in the push to bring in American researchers.
Since that program started, a cancer research foundation in Paris
announced it
was immediately putting up 3.5 million euros to welcome American cancer
researchers. And last week, two universities in Paris announced they
were offering positions to American scientists whose work has been
curtailed or halted by the Trump administration.
“We are researchers. We want to continue
to work at the highest level in these fields that are being attacked in
the United States,” explained El Mouhoub Mouhoud, the president of
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres.