As the Trump administration has threatened to significantly cut back on support for research institutions and freeze federal funding for universities such as Harvard and Columbia, European leaders hope to provide financial support to US-based researchers and benefit from what they call “huge miscalculation.”
“A few years ago, no one could imagine that one of the great democracies in the world would rule out a research programme on the pretext that the term “diversity” appeared in that program,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
He was speaking at the University of Sorbonne in Paris during an event called Europe for Science, organized by the French government and the European Union.
Macron also said that countries where “economies are heavily dependent on free science” would “make such a mistake,” which is unthinkable.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the investment in 500 million euros, or $566 million, at a conference to “make Europe a magnet for researchers” over the next two years.
That amount isn't huge compared to the billions of cuts facing American universities, but Von Der Leyen said in addition to a $100 billion international research program called Horizon Europe that supports scientific breakthroughs such as genome sequencing and mRNA vaccines.
She didn't mention the US by name, but she described the global environment, “where basic, free and open research is questioned.”
“What a huge miscalculation!” she said.
In Europe there is a broad sense that Trump has abandoned traditional American support for freedom, freedom of speech and democracy through his embrace of dictators and attacks on science and academia. It not only produced stocks, it also brought a sense of opportunity to the continent. There, attracting the finest scientific minds to active and independent universities is considered part of a broader campaign to “liam” Europe as an independent force.
In the long run, the European Commission, the enforcement unit of the European Union, plans to transfer freedom of scientific research to a law called the European Studies Area Act and double grants to researchers who embarrass them.
“Our top priority is to ensure that European science is open and free. That's our calling card,” von der Leyen said.
The Trump administration's attack on science and the threat to universities were the main driving forces of the conference attended by government ministers and well-known researchers across Europe. Increasingly, the United States is seen as a strategic enemy, and opening the door to American researchers and scientists as a long-term response to that challenge.
This was Macron's message to scientists: “If you love freedom, help us maintain our freedom.”
Last month, France unveiled its own programme to seduce US-based researchers. The government has pledged universities and research institutions with up to 50% of the funds needed to seduce international researchers, including those working in areas under pressure from the Trump administration, such as climate research and low-carbon energy. However, no special funding was announced until Monday when Macron said his government would commit $113 million to the program.
The European alarm began to echo as the Trump administration cut jobs as part of its cost-cutting measures and frozen science grants at major American institutions. The disappointment in Europe increased when the US government attacked the diversity program and tried to direct the university, in the words of Harvard President Alan M. Gerber, “which areas of learning and research can be pursued.”
Harvard has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a $2.2 billion freezing federal funding. Last week, Trump meditated on ending Harvard's tax-free status.
The US government has also fired staff from US Centers, considered to be at the pinnacle of scientific research, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest funder for biomedical research.
At the same time, some federal agencies have removed the words from websites deemed unacceptable by the Trump administration and granted applications. Among the terms considered taboos are “climate science,” “diversity,” and “gender.”
Taken together, scientists have brought cold weather through academia and research institutions, worrying not only about their work but also about the long-term viability of research.
“In the United States, academic freedom is challenged as it was once a paradise for researchers. The line between truth and falsehood is weakening the line between fact and belief,” French education minister Elizabeth Bourne said during a meeting Monday.
French universities are at the forefront of attempts to benefit from potential American brain drains. AIX Marseille University interviews about 300 candidates for this purpose Safe Place for Science program. This was launched in March in response to the Trump administration's cuts. Many other universities and institutions have followed suit since then.
“As with our self-interest and our values, our values are now ordered to become a shelter for knowledge wherever it is under pressure,” said Lewis Vassy, president of the University of Science PO in Paris.
Former French president François Hollande proposed laws that would create the status of “scientific refugees” who threatened their work in their country.
However, some university presidents and professors have criticised the initiative. They argue that while France is trying to derive American researchers, it is cutting higher education and research budgets to address the country's unsprung budget deficit.
