Just hours after opening the new program for US researchers called Safe Place for Science in response to Trump administration policies, Aix Marseille has received its first application.
Since then, the University in southern France known for its scientific programs has received about twelve applications a day from what the school considers “scientific asylum” seekers.
Other universities in France and elsewhere in Europe have also rushed to save US researchers who are leaving drastic cuts in jobs and programs from Trump’s administration, as well as perceived attacks on whole fields of research.
It is at stake not only individual jobs, but the concept of free scientific research, say university presidents. They also rush to fill huge holes in collective research caused by cuts, especially in areas targeted by Trump’s administration, including climate change studies, public health, environmental science, gender and diversity.
If the movement becomes a trend, it could mean the reversal of the long -term brain leak that has seen generations of scientists moving to the United States. And while at least some Europeans have noted that changes in the United States provide a unique opportunity to build stronger European research centers, most academics say competition is not 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, who has promoted 15m euros.
He said the number of open “was not too much”, but the goal was to “give some hope”.
In France, Aix Marseille University is considered a leader in the push to bring American researchers.
Since began this program, a Paris Cancer Research Foundation has announced that it had immediately put 3.5m euros to welcome US cancer researchers. And last week, two universities in Paris announced that they are offering positions to US scientists whose project has been limited or stopped by Trump’s administration.
“We are researchers, we want to continue working at the highest level in these areas attacking the United States,” explained El Mouhoub Mouhoud, president of Université Paris Sciences et lettres.
The university plans to welcome 15 researchers already working in joint projects in targeted areas, such as climate science, health, humanities and gender studies, Mr Mouhoud said. As a result, the works will continue unlimited and US researchers could enjoy “academic freedom to do their research,” he said.
“This is good for everyone,” Mr Mouhoud said.
Alarms in European scientific institutions began to be heard, as Trump’s administration began to reduce jobs and frozen science grants as part of the widespread cost reduction.
Fires in American centers believed that the top of science was announced week after week, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Foundation for Science, American Geological Survey and Disease Control and Prevention Centers.
The National Institutes of Health, the largest financier of biomedical research in the world, shot 1,200 employees and put on waiting grant reviews, essentially turning off the fountain of government funding for research projects in laboratories.
The cuts are coming, as some federal services have removed terms from websites and applications that are considered unacceptable for Trump administration, which seeks to clear the federal government of initiatives. Among the terms that are considered taboo: “climate science”, “diversity” and “sex”.
Overall, the actions have sent a cold through academic and research institutions, with scientists worrying not only about their jobs, but about the long -term viability of their research.
“What we are seeing today is really censorship, censorship of fundamental values, “said Yasmine Belkaid, president of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who moved to France last year after 30 years to the United States, where he had led the National Institutes of Health.
“We could lose a generation of science, a generation of scientists, something we cannot recover,” he added. “It is our duty collectively to ensure that science as a whole is protected.”
Philippe Baptiste, the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, was one of the most honest and active European leaders on the subject. Mr Baptiste, who led the French National Center for Space Studies before joining the government, described Trump’s decisions as “collective madness” that required a quick and powerful response from around the world.
“They make decisions,” he said, “who call into question whole research not only in the United States, but in the world because there is a huge number of programs that we do with the United States – in the observation of the land, in climate, in ecology, in the environment, in health data.
Speaking of scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with which he worked closely in his previous work, Mr Baptiste said: “These people have excellent scientific quality, who deal with weather, climate and earth. And what is the idea?
Mr Baptiste cooperates with the presidents of French universities to find a government program. It has also promoted a reaction throughout Europe, including a letter drafting, also signed by government ministers in 11 other European countries, which require a coordinated effort and dedicated funding by the European Commission for newly established businesses, research and innovation.
More than 350 scientists have signed a report published this week in the French newspaper Le Monde, also calling on the European Commission to create an emergency fund of 750m euros to accommodate thousands of researchers working in the United States.
A spokesman for the European Commission said a meeting was designed to coordinate the most effective response to Trump’s cuts in scientific research.
In Brussels, two sister universities – Vrije Universiteit Brusel and Université Libre de Bruxelles – said they were planning to buy American students a program offering 36 postdoctoral positions that open to international researchers from around the world.
Positions, which are largely funded by the European Union’s money, will focus on climate research, artificial intelligence and other areas that see schools as socially important.
In the Netherlands, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Eppo Bruins, announced that he wanted to create a “short -term” fund to attract leading scientists in various fields. While not directing Mr Trump directly, he hints at it in a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives. “The geopolitical climate is changing, which today increases the international mobility of scientists,” he wrote. “Many European countries respond to this and are going to attract international scientific talents. I want the Netherlands to continue to be in the spotlight.”
Ulrike Malmendier, a German economist who is a member of Germany’s leading Economic Council, urged European governments to increase investment in science to attract researchers out of work from the United States. “Growth in the US is a huge opportunity for Germany and Europe,” said Malmendier, who is a professor at the University of California Berkeley, told Germany’s Funke Media Group. ‘I know a lot of people are thinking of leaving’
The report was contributed by Jeanna smialek by Brussels, Claire from London, and Christopher F. Schuetze and Melissa eddy from Berlin.
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