Macron and von der Leyen expected to announce protections for researchers seeking to relocate amid Trump’s crackdown
France and the EU are to step up their efforts to attract US-based scientists hit by Donald Trump’s crackdown on academia, as they prepare announcements on incentives for researchers to settle in Europe.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, alongside the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will make speeches on Monday morning at Sorbonne University in Paris, flanked by European university leaders and researchers, in which they are expected to announce potential incentives and protections for researchers seeking to relocate to Europe.
The event, bringing together European academics and European commissioners, is the latest push to open Europe’s doors to US-based academics and researchers who fear their work is threatened by federal spending cuts for universities and research bodies, as well as the targeting of US higher education institutions over diversity policies.
Listen, I’m all for welcoming talent and knowledge and truly believe that scientists play a pivotal role in the collective progress of humanity, but this just reeks of hypocrisy and racism.
You think there are no scientists in South Sudan, Palestine, Bangladesh or Myanmar? Governments around the world have collapsed and people are fleeing literal wars and genocides, but I didn’t see the EU scrambling to welcome and embrace scientists from those regions.
The message is going out to scientists from all around the world. Have a look at some quotes in here https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eus-von-der-leyen-invites-scientists-researchers-make-europe-their-home-2025-04-29/ At least in Germany programs to help scientists that are fleeing from oppression are in place. But of course the recent US policies are in focus in the news.
I did look at the link you gave. I didn’t see anything about being globally inclusive there.
“This is why Europe is open to the best and brightest. This is why we will make proposals to help them ‘Choose Europe’. Because we want scientists and researchers from all over the world to make Europe their home – and to make Europe the home of innovation again.”