Hello and welcome to the details of ‘Choose Europe for science’: France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists fleeing Trump’s squeeze and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) are hosting a Paris conference today aimed at attracting US researchers seeking to relocate due to President Donald Trump’s policies. — Reuters pic
PARIS, May 5 — French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen host a Paris conference today to attract US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump’s policies.
EU commissioners, scientists and ministers for research from member countries will discuss, among other things, financial incentives at the gathering to lure disgruntled American scientists across the Atlantic.
Paris’s Sorbonne university is hosting the conference, called “Choose Europe for Science”, which is to close with speeches by Macron and von der Leyen.
Under Trump, universities and research facilities in the US have come under increasing political and financial pressure, including from threats of massive federal funding cuts.
Research programmes face closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, while foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views.
The European Union hopes to offer an alternative for researchers and, by the same token, “defend our strategic interests and promote a universalist vision”, an official in Macron’s office told AFP.
The French president had already last month appealed to foreign, notably US, researchers to “choose France” and unveiled plans for a funding programme to help universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to France.
Flood of applicants
Shortly before, Aix Marseille University in the south of the country said its “Safe Place for Science” scheme received a flood of applicants after announcing in March it would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts.
Last week, France’s flagship scientific research centre CNRS launched a new initiative aimed at attracting foreign researchers whose work is threatened and French researchers working abroad, some of whom “don’t want to live and raise their children in Trump’s United States”, according to CNRS President Antoine Petit.
An official in Macron’s office said today’s conference comes “at a time when academic freedoms are retreating and under threat in a number of cases and Europe is a continent of attractiveness”.
Experts say, however, that while EU countries can offer competitive research infrastructure and a high quality of life, research funding and researchers’ remuneration both lag far behind US levels.
But CNRS’s Petit said last week he hoped that the pay gap will seem less significant once the lower cost of education and health, and more generous social benefits are taken into account.
Macron’s office said France and the EU are targeting researchers in a number of specific sectors, including health, climate, biodiversity, artificial intelligence and space. — AFP
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