Europe makes a pitch to attract scientists shunned by US

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen took aim at Donald Trump´s policies on science on Monday, as the EU seeks to encourage disgruntled US researchers to relocate to Europe.

Von der Leyen told the gathering at Paris´s Sorbonne university that the European Union will launch a new incentives package worth 500 million euros ($567 million) to make the bloc “a magnet for researchers”.

Without mentioning Trump directly, von der Leyen told the “Choose Europe for Science” conference that the role of science was being put in question “in today´s world”, and condemned such views as “a gigantic miscalculation”.

Universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure under Trump, including threats of massive federal funding cuts. “Nobody could have imagined that this great global democracy whose economic model depends so heavily on free science... was going to commit such an error,” Macron said.

He added: “We refuse a diktat consisting of any government being able to say you cannot research this or that.” US research programmes face closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired and foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views.

The 27-nation EU hopes to offer an alternative for researchers and, by the same token, “defend our strategic interests and promote a universalist vision”, an official in Macron´s office told AFP ahead of the conference.