French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced major funding packages at a conference in Paris on Monday, as Europe seeks to attract US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump's policies and funding cuts.
Paris's Sorbonne university hosted the conference, called "Choose Europe for Science", bringing together EU commissioners, scientists and ministers for research from member countries to discuss, among other things, financial incentives at the gathering to lure disgruntled American scientists across the Atlantic.
In her remarks, von der Leyen announced a multi-million EU package.
"Science is an investment – and we need to offer the right incentives. This is why I can announce that we will put forward a new €500 million package for 2025-2027 to make Europe a magnet for researchers," she said in her speech.
"We are choosing to put research and innovation, science and technology, at the heart of our economy. We are choosing to be the continent where universities are pillars of our societies and our way of life," she added.
She also said she wanted EU-member states to invest 3 percent of gross domestic product in research and development by 2030.
'Diktat'
When Macron took to the podium, he doubled up on the European message: "If you love freedom, come and do you research here."
He announced that the French state will invest an "additional" €100 million to attract foreign researchers to France, specifying that this amount would be financed by the France 2030 public investment program.
Macron referred to the Trump administration's US science policy a "diktat" and an "error".
"Nobody could have imagined that this great global democracy whose economic model depends so heavily on free science... was going to commit such an error," he said. "We refuse a diktat consisting of any government being able to say you cannot research this or that," he said.
Federal funding cuts
Under Trump, universities and research facilities in the United States 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 French news agency 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.
French university opens doors to US scientists fleeing Trump’s research cuts
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 Monday'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".
Pay gap
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.
(with AFP)
