A French university offers "scientific asylum" to American talents: The brain drain has begun!

By: Alexander Hurst / The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com

Within six weeks, the Trump administration’s “planned, immediate dismantling” of American science has been as swift and profound as the erosion of US alliances and international reputation; in earth sciences, weather forecasting and early warning systems, medical research (including cancer research), NASA. More broadly, academic grants have been cut, suspended or put under review due to a list of banned words (including terms like “politics” and “woman”).

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This has forced universities across the country to reduce enrollment of doctoral, medical, and other advanced students; impose hiring freezes; and even withdraw some admission offers. More than 12,500 U.S. citizens currently abroad on Fulbright research grants have had their funding suspended, along with 7,400 foreign scholars currently in the U.S., leaving them in financial difficulty. And when it comes to a foreign scholar visiting the U.S., there are cases of him being detained and denied entry.

Even more worrying is the fact that the administration has targeted specific universities, including by withdrawing $400 million from Columbia University and $800 million from Johns Hopkins University, forcing the latter to lay off XNUMX employees. Moreover, the legally dubious arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalili and the revocation of his green card are expected to have a chilling effect on foreign students and researchers already in the US – and on the desire of others to go there in the future. As German-British professor Christina Pagel of University College London writes: “This is not chaos.” Rather, the attacks on research appear to pursue three main objectives: to force science to conform to state ideology; to undermine academic independence and suppress dissent; and to support geopolitical and economic objectives.

missiles Saturn V that took American astronauts into space – and then to the moon – in the 60s, exist thanks to Operation Paperclip, which brought 1,500 Nazi scientists to the US (like Wernher von Braun, former director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center). In the week after Donald Trump’s election, the question was raised whether German philosopher Jürgen Habermas would inadvertently realize his own wish (for a united Europe facing the US), suggesting that Europe position itself to reverse the transatlantic brain drain by welcoming educated American scholars and scientists, who would surely be targeted. This time, there are no moral dilemmas, no Nazi past to ignore; there are only benefits in a world where the EU must keep liberal democratic society alive, along with Canada in the West and Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand in the East.

To some extent, governments and EU institutions have already seized this opportunity. For example, on March 7, the University of Aix-Marseille announced the Safe Place for Science program, a three-year, 15 million-euro initiative to bring 15 American scientists working in the fields of climate, health, and astrophysics to its campus. According to a university spokesperson, more than 60 applications have been received, 30 of them within the first 24 hours. The university has announced that it is in contact with other universities and the French government to expand the concept of “scientific asylum” at the national and European level, and to help welcome and relocate diverse researchers.

The US federal government spent about $195 billion [€180 billion] on all research and development (R&D) in 2024. That sounds impressive, but let’s put it in a broader context. By 2023, the US GDP was $27.7 trillion [€25.52 trillion], while the EU’s was $26.5 trillion [€24.41 billion], when measured at purchasing power parity. Taken together, the two economies are roughly the same size. Let’s imagine that the EU actually put money on the table to attract US scientists to the continent. It wouldn’t need to equate $195 billion to euros, in part because more than half of that amount in the US goes to military R&D, and the EU is already significantly increasing its defense spending. So, let's say that a reasonable, rounded amount would be chosen that fits well for stories, narratives, and headlines, and that would be enough to cover the cuts that are happening in the US.

A sum of €25 billion a year would amount to just under 0.1 percent of EU GDP, and even less if you include the UK, Norway and Switzerland (which participate in the Horizon Europe research funding programme). Currently, EU R&D spending lags behind that of the US – and a recent report commissioned by the European Commission’s research department recommended more than doubling Horizon Europe’s seven-year €95 billion budget. What I am proposing goes further, yes, but it is not only well within the EU’s means to do so, it would pay for itself: research has shown that spending on non-military R&D has generated a 200 percent return for the US over the period since World War II.

But let’s stretch the imagination even further and suggest that the EU could attract not just American scholars but also American universities. The Cross Border Education Research Team has reported that American universities maintain 29 campuses in Europe (and many more if study abroad centers and programs are included). Dozens of American colleges and universities have large endowments that often spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new buildings. If US intrusions – like the recent demands on Columbia University – on foreign studies, funding, and students become more frequent, then the idea of ​​second campuses in Europe could become increasingly attractive. /Telegraph/