Europe Pledges Half a Billion Euros To Attract Scientists and Researchers

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The European Union launched a drive on Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans, after the Trump administration froze U.S. government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program,' French President Emmanuel Macron said at the 'Choose Europe for Science' event in Paris. 'No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas,' Macron said. 'But here we are.'

Taking the same stage at the Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU's executive branch would set up a 'super grant' program aimed at offering 'a longer-term perspective to the very best' in the field. She said that 500 million euros ($566 million) will be put forward in 2025-2027 'to make Europe a magnet for researchers.' It would be injected into the European Research Council, which already has a budget of more than 16 billion euros ($18 billion) for 2021-2027.

Von der Leyen said that the 27-nation EU intends 'to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law' with a new legal act. As 'the threats rise across the world, Europe will not compromise on its principles,' she said. Macron said that the French government would also soon make new proposals to beef up investment in science and research. While not mentioning the Trump administration by name, von der Leyen said that it was 'a gigantic miscalculation' to undermine free and open research. 'We can all agree that science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity, no political party,' she said. 'We believe that diversity is an asset of humanity and the lifeblood of science. It is one of the most valuable global assets and it must be protected.'
Macron said that science and research must not 'be based on the diktats of the few.'

Macron said that Europe 'must become a refuge' for scientists and researchers, and he said to those who feel under threat elsewhere: 'The message is simple. If you like freedom, come and help us to remain free, to do research here, to help us become better, to invest in our future.'

Further reading: 75% of Scientists in Nature Poll Weigh Leaving US

NASA, Yale, and Stanford Scientists Consider 'Scientific Exile'

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