Welcome, American scientists: Europe, a refuge for researchers beneath Trump’s siege | International | EUROtoday

When on March 7, 2025, Éric Berton, president of Aix-Marseille University (AMU), launched the initiative Safe Place for Science (Safe Place for Science), did so with a transparent thought in thoughts: to create a scientific refuge for researchers who have been searching for a method out of the United States within the face of the cuts and restrictions of the Trump Administration. The aggressiveness of the measures imposed till then on Berton’s colleagues in American laboratories and school rooms was sufficient as a warning of what was to come back. What was sudden, nevertheless, was the success of his thought.

As quickly because the platform opened, on the identical day the seventh, Safe Place for Science registered his first candidacy. After the deadline, there have been about 300, whereas one other 600 arrived after the deadline. The United States, which because the finish of World War II has been the nerve heart for researchers in all scientific fields, not had the identical attraction because it did till a number of years in the past. And Europe noticed a chance.

In May 2025, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, introduced the launch of this system Choose Europe for Sciencewith financing of about 500 million euros to draw American candidates. In addition to France, 9 different European international locations, together with Spain and even the EU itself, have developed comparable initiatives.

The Spanish Atrae program acquired twice as many functions from the United States in 2025 than a yr earlier than. The Ministry of Science and the State Research Agency confirmed that greater than 254 international researchers participated within the final version. One in three was American. In Catalonia, the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, introduced a number of months in the past the creation of the Catalunya Talent Bridge, which deliberate to host 26 researchers earlier than coming into 2026, though this in the end got here up empty.

The German federal authorities additionally created packages Global Minds Initiative Germany and the Meitner-Einstein packageswhereas the German Max Planck Society introduced the Max Planck Transatlantic Programme. At the start of this yr, a spokeswoman for the German Ministry of the Interior defined to EL PAÍS that the variety of residence permits granted to US residents within the nation elevated by 32% within the comparative interval from January to September between 2024 and 2025. This consists of the next causes for residence: work exercise (together with researchers), vocational coaching, research, recognition measures and job search (alternative card).” In Austria, there was also a similar initiative, the so-called APART-USA, always with the same goal: to take advantage of this brain drain.

Alka Patel, one of the candidates selected for Safe Place for Sciencearrived in France at the beginning of last year, accompanied by her husband, Didier, originally from this country, and their daughter. In a video call with this newspaper, he acknowledges that he left the United States before Trump arrived at the White House. “The decisive moment for me was in 2024, before the elections [que ganó Trump]with the extremely violent repression of the students who demonstrated on my own campus at the University of California [donde era profesora]”he explains.

Patel was delivered to the United States by her dad and mom as a toddler from India. She had been planning to depart the nation for 3 years, on the time Trump returned. “I don’t think that all this phenomenon [la fuga de cerebros] It was something instantaneous. I think that, unfortunately, it has been a process that has been developing,” he clarifies. Trump’s cuts definitively sealed his decision. “If I had any doubts about the educational characteristics, the opportunities and so on [en EE UU]that doubt was resolved,” he assures.

In the first days of his second term, the Trump administration carried out an even more aggressive offensive against the fields that bother the Republican. For example, climate monitoring agencies have seen work on climate change and related grants restricted. “There have been budget cuts, researchers have been fired and databases have been deleted,” laments the president of AMU in a telephone conversation. However, some of that content was recovered by judicial decisions. According to the president of the French university, some applications to enroll in the program even arrived by private messaging and encrypted, for fear of the candidates being identified.

The program Safe Place for Sciencewith a duration of three years, is oriented towards two areas of study: on the one hand, the Social Sciences and Humanities (Environment and Climate, Gender, History, Geography) and, on the other, the classical sciences (such as Biology or Medicine). “All matters prohibited by the Trump Government,” adds Berton.

Patel’s research has focused on South Asia and its connections with Iran and Central Asia, including the land and maritime networks of the Indian Ocean, topics on which he plans to continue working during his time at AMU. Although some of her relatives remain in the United States, she states that she cannot consider returning to live there, although she does hope to go on a trip to the North American country in the future.

France, pioneer country

After the launch of the program Safe Place for SciencePresident Emmanuel Macron launched another similar and complementary project, just a month later: Choose France for Science. Co-financed by the French Government, it allows researchers like Patel to develop their projects in institutions throughout France.

The Paris-Saclay University, in the French capital, is one of the higher education centers that have joined the campaign. “We have two packages. One for doctoral college students and one other for confirmed researchers,” Mehran Mostafavi, vice president of Research at Saclay, explains to this newspaper by phone. The financial support provided by the CentraleSupélec and Gustave Roussy foundations has made it possible to expand the faculty’s reception capacity to eight and 10 candidates, respectively.

After three years of this system, each candidates hosted in Marseille and people within the nationwide program might request an extension of their keep. “After two years, scientists must present their project to the European Research Council [ERC, por sus siglas en inglés]”Details Mostafavi. The ERC will then decide whether to renew its financing for five more years. Otherwise, the vice president assures that each profile will be studied.

For now, for Patel, the next step is clear: “I have been offered a position at the CNRS [el Centro Nacional para la Investigación Científica de Francia, en sus siglas en francés]”, he admits sheepishly.