As the US government reduces the support of research institutions and threatens universities such as Harvard and Columbia by freezing federal funds, European leaders hope to benefit from what they call American “error” and “giant”.
“No one could have imagined a few years ago that one of the great democracies of the world would eliminate research programs on the pretext that the word” diversity “appeared in its program,” said President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday.
He was talking to the University of Sorbonne in Paris during an event called Choose Europe for Science organized by the French Government and the European Union.
It was inconceivable, Mr Macron said, also referring to the withdrawal of researchers’ visas in the United States, that a nation whose “economy depends so much on free science” will “commit such a mistake”.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announced a $ 566 million investment at the conference to “make Europe a magnet for researchers” over the next two years. The money, he said, will support the “best and brightest” from all over the world.
Like Mr Macron, Mrs Von Der Leyen did not mention the United States by the name, but described a global environment where a “fundamental, free and open research” is being questioned.
“What a gigantic incorrect calculation!” he said.
In Europe, there is a widespread feeling that Mr Trump has abandoned America’s traditional support for freedom, freedom of speech and democracy through the embrace of the emperor and the attack on the academic world. This has created executives, but also a sense of opportunity in Europe, where the attraction of the best scientific minds to intense and independent universities is regarded as part of a broader campaign for “back” Europe as independent power.
In the long run, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, plans to double grants for researchers moving to Europe and to secure the freedom of scientific research into law called ACT European Research Area.
“The first priority is to ensure that science in Europe remains open and free. This is our telephone card,” said Ms. Von Der Leyen. “As threats rise all over the world, Europe will not come to terms with its principles.
Trump’s administration attack on science and the threats to universities were the main push for the conference, which was attended by government ministers and prominent researchers from all over Europe. Increasingly, the United States is regarded as a strategic opponent, with the opening of doors to US researchers and scientists who are considered an effective long -term response to this challenge.
Mr Macron’s message to scientists – especially women, he said, was: “If you love freedom, come to help us stay free.”
He announced that his government will devote $ 113 million to foreign researchers, promising that they will not replace European scientists.
Alarms in Europe began to be heard when Trump’s administration broke jobs and frozen science grants to leading American institutions as part of cost cutting measures. European disappointment has increased as the US government attacked diversity programs and tried to dictate to universities “which they can admit and hire and what areas of study and research can follow,” according to the words of Harvard’s President, Alan M..
