Key points
- EU is tripping over itself to take US scientists in
- Brussels urged to devise a strategy to nab US researchers
- Europe needs more talent
ISLAMABAD: The Donald Trump administration’s targeting of the top US universities, particularly due to their focus on progressive issues as far as scientific research is concerned is all set to prove a blessing for the European scientific community and research institutes.
The European Union (EU)’s body for scientific research, as well as local, regional and national governments, are mobilising to poach top US scholars.
According to an article published in Politico, Donald Trump is trying to purge United States research institutions of scholars who study purportedly progressive issues. The EU is tripping over itself to take them in.
America’s best and brightest
According to Politico, from universities to cities, regions, countries and now the European Commission, the message is loud and clear — Europe welcomes US-based talent and is pulling out all the stops to attract America’s best and brightest.
“This global landscape is an opportunity to show the world that Europe will remain a safe space for science and research,” European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva told EU lawmakers on Monday evening. “Europe can and should be the best place to do science … a place that attracts and retains researchers, both international and European.”
Citing significant cuts to federal research spending in the US, as well as coercive measures targeting specific universities and researchers investigating climate science, vaccines and minority and gender issues, the commissioner said the bloc was in a unique position to serve as a refuge for top scientists. She also set out a trove of enticements for researchers hit by Trump’s moves.
To enhance Europe’s “pull factor” for top-level talent, Zaharieva said the Commission would enshrine freedom of scientific research within EU law and immediately increase the financial support offered by the European Research Council (ERC), the bloc’s public body for scientific and technological enquiry.
Currently, researchers based in the US who relocate to Europe can apply for €1 million beyond the usual maximum grant amount, which will be increased to €2 million. That means, in total, these researchers could be eligible for grants of up to €4.5 million.
According to Politico, ERC President Maria Leptin said the body wants to maintain “Europe’s tradition of openness and support for independent, investigator-driven research, regardless of the nationality or the current location of grant applicants.”
Leptin insisted the ERC is not purposely trying to poach US talent, “but we want to help our colleagues over there if we can.”
Special visa
Citing a letter from 13 member countries urging Brussels to devise a strategy to nab US researchers, Zaharieva said the Commission is working on a special visa for top talent, as well as a system to help governments and universities in the bloc pool resources to attract American scholars. A meeting will also be held to coordinate those actions with EU countries.
“Europe has a historical responsibility to defend academic freedom,” the commissioner added, alluding to the persecution of scholars under Nazi and fascist regimes on the continent during the 1930s and 1940s. “Without freedom, knowledge cannot truly grow.”
Open doors, open labs
According to Politico, some universities have been quick to spot the opportunity, launching targeted recruitment schemes for US talent.
Last month, Provence’s Aix Marseille University (AMU) made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic by unveiling the Safe Space for Science scheme, a $16 million initiative to recruit up to 15 US scientists whose research is being “threatened or hindered” by the new administration.
AMU President Eric Berton said that the programme — which was “born of indignation at what is happening to our American colleagues” — had been inundated with applications from nearly 150 researchers hailing from top universities including Yale, Colombia and Stanford, as well as from US government agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA.
Most of the applicants are researching subjects like climate change, immunology and infectious diseases, or social sciences involving gender, diversity and migration — fields targeted by the Trump administration’s war on science and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues. Berton added that even historians had applied to the programme.
In recent weeks, similar schemes have been rolled out at other universities. Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) has allocated funds and launched a dedicated welcome centre with visa information for postdoctoral scholars who are “victims of political and ideological interference” in the United States.
In Sweden, the prestigious Karolinska Institute, famous for its work on medicines and infectious diseases, said it was increasing its ability to respond to queries on relocating to Sweden for opportunities — “which have already started to come in” — and was liaising with other universities about how best to support academic emigrés from the US
Intellectual gold rush
According to Politico, European cities and regional and national governments are also scrambling to attract top talent that has, until now, usually flocked to prominent and better-financed research institutions on the other side of the Atlantic.
In a bid to reinforce Berlin’s status as “a location for international cutting-edge research in the fields of medicine and social sciences,” the city is setting up a special fund to attract researchers from the US.
Meanwhile, Catalan President Salvador Illa this week unveiled a €30 million Catalonian Talent Bridge regional recruitment scheme, which will finance posts for 78 American researchers in local universities and high-tech research institutions like the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the National Centre for Genome Analysis.
Prominent scholars are demanding that national governments mobilise funds as well. Eight senior scientists and professors in Germany published an op-ed in Der Spiegel this week urging the country’s leaders to target “100 bright minds for Germany” in a concerted recruitment drive.
“Reverse the brain drain”
Citing figures like physicists Albert Einstein and Lise Meitner — both of whom emigrated to escape Nazi persecution during the Third Reich — the scientists wrote that Germany and Europe now have the opportunity to “reverse the brain drain” of the past and “not only strengthen our own innovation and research power, but also cushion the global loss of knowledge progress.”
Despite steep budget cuts in the Netherlands, Minister of Education, Culture and Science Eppo Bruins recently told lawmakers the country would prioritise allocating funds to recruit international scientists that are “worth gold to Europe and the Netherlands.”
Spain is already using Atrae, a scheme originally launched to help repatriate high-level Spanish scientists who had emigrated for economic reasons, to court American scholars. Similarly, Belgium’s established Brains for Brussels programme — which finances foreign scholars researching artificial intelligence, IVF and other fields that are financially relevant for Belgium’s capital region — is expected to be used to attract US applicants this year, according to Politico.
Another article published by Politico states, 12 EU capitals want programmes to bring over American scholars. A group of European countries is devising a strategy to poach researchers in the United States in response to American government cuts in education and research.
Twelve governments said the European Union needs an “attractivity boom” to bring over talent from abroad “who might suffer from research interference and ill-motivated and brutal funding cuts,” in a letter to the European Commission.
The undated letter was addressed to EU Innovation Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and signed by France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
Can Europe match America?
According to The Economist, whether Europe can match America as a science and innovation superpower is uncertain. It has improved its output of highly cited scientific papers, says Reinhilde Veugelers of KU Leuven, a university in Belgium. But Nature Index, a ranking of citations in 145 natural-science journals, shows Europe falling behind while China and India climb. To make progress, Europe needs more money, more talent and more freedom.
The EU spends about two per cent of GDP on research and development, barely half America’s 3.6 per cent. Most of the gap is explained by lower R&D spending by businesses. That calls for deeper capital markets to provide risk capital for innovative firms, and a more unified and less regulated market to allow them to scale their products. Project Europe, an initiative of over 150 European tech founders, helps talented young people in Europe who want to solve technical problems and start businesses. “Europe has all the ingredients, but we fail to bundle them,” says Matthias Knecht, one of the founders. He sees a deep frustration “that Europe doesn’t get its act together”.
Europe needs talent
Europe needs to overcome a preference for regional equity and provide more funding for elite institutions—and as continued investment, not as a one-off programme. Building political majorities for such a shift will be difficult.
Europe also needs more talent. “In America, unlike in Europe, there is a hunger for foreign talent. Or at least there was,” says a US-based biomedical researcher from India. If America keeps hassling immigrant researchers, Europe could gain. When the first Trump administration tightened eligibility criteria for H-1B specialist visas in 2017, applicants flocked to Canada. That raised domestic firms’ output and natives’ wages, according to a new paper by Agostina Brinatti of Yale University and Xing Guo of the Bank of Canada. Europe is an attractive place to live, though it could be more welcoming to outsiders, in terms of both visas and career prospects, according to The Economist.
