EU plans to poach scientists from the United States who lost funding due to Trump’s policies
European countries are looking to lure scientists from the US after the US government cut funding for education and research. About this informs Political.
France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania sent a letter to Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for Innovation. The letter states that the European Union needs “boom of attractiveness“to attract talent from abroad, “which may suffer from interference with scientific research and unmotivated and brutal cuts in funding”.
Although the USA is not directly mentioned in the letter, the authors make hints:
“The current international context reminds us that the freedom of science can be threatened anywhere and anytime.”
France’s Minister of Higher Education and Research Philippe Baptiste emphasized in a comment to Politico:
“There is an urgent need to organize to welcome talent who would like or are forced to leave the United States.”
The letter outlines several proposals to attract scientists, including targeted funding, immigration preferences and stronger partnerships with “leading scientific countries.” The signatories call for a meeting of EU research ministers in the coming weeks to develop a clear action plan.
At the same time, a number of European universities have already begun to attract American researchers. Thus, the Free University of Brussels (VUB) has announced 12 vacancies for international scientists.
We will remind you that last week the John Hopkins University announced a large-scale reduction of personnel due to the policy of the Trump administration – 247 employees were laid off in the USA and another 1,975 in 44 countries around the world.
Harvard University also announced the suspension of faculty and staff hiring, citing “financial uncertainty.” In addition, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University due to its “failure to address the problem of anti-Semitism.” Also, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) began mass cancellation of grants for research related to gender identity, inclusion and ecology.
