France and the EU are like, really trying hard to get US-based scientists to come over because of Donald Trump’s whole crackdown on academia. They’re gonna make some big announcements with incentives for researchers to move to Europe. So, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, are gonna give speeches at Sorbonne University in Paris on Monday. They’re gonna be surrounded by European university leaders and researchers, and they’re gonna spill the tea on potential incentives and protections for researchers who wanna move to Europe.
This whole shindig is all about making Europe more appealing to US-based academics and researchers who are freaking out about budget cuts and diversity issues in the States. Macron’s office said they’re doing this because academic freedoms are under threat and Europe is a pretty cool place to be. They’re all about freedom of research and talking about stuff that might be off-limits elsewhere.
France is especially interested in snagging scientists who focus on health, infectious diseases, climate research, and artificial intelligence. They’re really going all out with this event called Choose Europe for science. Like, they even got 13 European countries to write to the European Commission to speed up the process of attracting academic talent.
In April, France started their own Choose France for science program to bring in international researchers. The French research ministry said some foreign researchers are already scoping out the scene in France, waiting for everything to be set up.
Recently, CNRS, a major research center in France, launched an initiative to bring in foreign workers whose research is at risk. They’re also looking to bring French researchers back from abroad who aren’t feeling the vibe in the US anymore. Aix-Marseille University even has a “Safe place for science” program starting up soon.
In a letter to French universities, the minister for higher education and research said lots of big-shot researchers in the US are thinking about leaving, and France would love to have them. But there are challenges, like how the US invests way more in research than Europe does. European researchers have been complaining about low pay and iffy job security for a while now.
Some folks in France are hoping that once you consider the lower cost of education and healthcare, along with better social benefits, the pay gap with the US won’t seem so bad. Germany’s next leader even said that the US government’s tough approach to universities is making American researchers look towards Europe, which is a major win for them.
So yeah, Europe is really rolling out the welcome mat for US-based scientists. It’s gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming months. Not really sure why this matters, but hey, it’s kinda cool to see countries competing for brains, right?
