Countries boost recruitment of American scientists amid cuts to scientific funding
Category: News & Politics
Via: hallux • 4 days ago • 46 commentsBy: Chandelis Duster, Geoff Brumfiel - NPR
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As the Trump administration and Elon Musk's DOGE seek to reduce the federal workforce and cut spending, some European countries are looking to capitalize on the opportunity by recruiting talent from the scientific community.
The administration's actions, including eliminating programs and funding for scientific research , are prompting some researchers and scientists to consider leaving the U.S. to live in other countries, such as France, to continue their work.
According to a survey released by the journal Nature on Thursday, more than 1,200 respondents who identified as scientists said they were considering leaving the U.S. and relocating to Europe or Canada because of President Trump's actions. Approximately 1,650 people completed the survey, which was posted on the journal's website, social media and an e-mailed newsletter, according to the journal.
Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, tells NPR that she has spoken with scientists, some of whom currently work at federal agencies and others who have been fired. Many of them say they are looking for opportunities abroad due to a lack of options for conducting their research with the government or at universities, Jones says.
"There's another bucket of folks as well, and those are folks who are just worried in general about the intimidation, fear and harassment that they are facing," she says. "This could be a result of the kind of work that they're doing. They might be doing work around issues of diversity, equity, [and] inclusion, trying to broaden participation in our STEM or science, technology, engineering, math fields. These could be folks working on issues of climate change, of vaccine safety."
Jones also says she has spoken with scientists who said after the 2024 presidential election, they "began seeking and have acquired positions overseas."
"They would have started that process before inauguration and before the last few weeks," Jones says.
Helping as many scientists as possible
The U.S. has historically been viewed as a leading country for research, having actively recruited scientists from around the world for significant projects and studies. For example, when the Manhattan Project began in December 1941, it was a top-secret research initiative by the U.S. government that ultimately led to the development of the first atomic bombs. Scientists from Europe were specifically sought out to help with the project. Many of these European scientists were already living in the U.S. after being displaced because of the turmoil of WWII or fleeing from Nazism and fascism.
American scientists conducting research in other countries is not a new phenomenon, and there are programs where American students and scientists can study abroad, Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, tells NPR. But the growing number of American scientists considering leaving the U.S. due to uncertainty in the U.S. is not normal, he says.
" It's something that's ramped up and it has a different messaging, which is saying, 'There's uncertainty there. Come to us,' " Parikh says of efforts by other countries to recruit scientists and researchers from the United States.
In response to these recent developments, schools in France, including the prestigious CentraleSupélec, have established funds to support American scientists. The engineering school announced last week that it has allocated 3 million euros (around $3.2 million) to finance research projects that can no longer continue in the U.S. Additionally, earlier this month, Aix-Marseille Université — one of the oldest and largest universities in France, with roots tracing back to1409 and approximately 80,000 students — announced it is accepting applications for its Safe Place For Science program.
The program aims to offer "a safe and stimulating environment for scientists wishing to pursue their research in complete freedom" and will support about 15 American scientists with a total fund of up to 15 million euros (around $16.2 million) over three years. The university has already received more than 150 applications, according to a public relations agency representing the university.
"We are witnessing a new brain drain. We will do everything in our power to help as many scientists as possible continue their research," Éric Berton, president of the university, said in a statement. "However, we cannot meet all demands on our own. The Ministry of Education and Research is fully supporting and assisting us in this effort, which is intended to expand at both national and European levels."
Other countries are also actively seeking to attract American scientists. For instance, the Netherlands is also launching a fund to support American scientists as well as those from other countries. Minister of Education, Culture and Science Eppo Bruins informed the parliament in a letter last week that he requested the country's science financier to set up a fund aimed at bringing top international scientists to the Netherlands as soon as possible.
"The world is changing. Tensions are increasing. We see that more and more scientists are looking for another place to do their work," Bruins wrote in the letter. "I want more international top scientists to come and do that here. After all, top scientists are worth their weight in gold for our country and for Europe."
While it remains unclear what funding will be available for scientific research from the U.S. government and for universities, Parikh says he is encouraging scientists working here not to leave.
"Over the last 80 years, we have built the greatest innovation engine that the world's ever seen and it's delivered cures and treatments for disease. It has delivered economic growth and jobs. And the other countries have paid attention and they wanna copy it and we shouldn't make it easy for them," he says.
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Um, y'all supposed to be draining the swamp, not the laboratories.
Brains, More Brains....
America, land of the starving zombies.
So that's the MAGA plan to keep us safe from zombies! Dumb America down so much any zombie would starve gnawing on the average rightwing religious conservative noggin.
"This could be a result of the kind of work that they're doing. They might be doing work around issues of diversity, equity, [and] inclusion, trying to broaden participation in our STEM or science, technology, engineering, math fields. These could be folks working on issues of climate change, of vaccine safety."
Not all research is equal. DOGE seem to be uncovering a lot of worthless research going on, the costs ultimately funded by the taxpayers.
STEM or science, technology, engineering, math fields.....yes
They might be doing work around issues of diversity, equity, [and] inclusion...... working on issues of climate change, of vaccine safety." Not so much. Do we need yet another study about transgenderism , or another fraud like Fauci?
DOGE seem to be uncovering a lot of worthless research going on, the costs ultimately funded by the taxpayers.
The operative word here is “seem”. If neither Elon Musk or Donald Trump can grasp the difference between transgender and transgenic then neither has any business being involved in anything having to do with research.
Whatever that is supposed to mean. Transgenderism is here to stay, if only because there are already a gender existing with such people. Declaring any people as not deserving of study is ignorant, for an informed nation studies (learns/discovers) from every thing on the planet as much as is needed. It is not now and never will be SUFFICIENT to just have narrow-minded limited answers on any dynamic topic. Furthermore, if a nation out front on data wants to fall back into obscurity and irrelevancy then watch it happen to a(ny) nation with its head down and not carrying forward with its progress on subject matter relevant to the world.
As for Dr. Fauci, I guess MAGA can continue to defame that good man. Despite that, Dr. Fauci should continue to hold his head high and be above the noise beneath a man of his character and world-renown status.
And yes, that does include studies of shit that your average MAGAite would think were unnecessary, but asking the dumbest morons on the planet who live in their own MAGAverse their opinion on STEM would be like asking your local grocery store bagger advice on brain surgery or quantum physics.
We should certainly study the apparent massive effect that less than 1% of the population has on the minds of rightwing conservatives. Transgender America's are clearly living rent free in 95% of rightwing conservatives brains, which is amazing since I would doubt more than a handful have ever actually met one in person. Sadly, with 95% of rightwing conservative brains tied up thinking about trans Americans, they're simply not equipped with enough brain power to tackle any of the other actual problems the world is facing like climate change so they just poo poo it and declare that their most amazing and magnificent God will fix all the problems so humans down have to worry about that stuff. And hey! If their God doesn't fix, it doesn't matter to them, they'll all be going to heaven anyway so it will be the rest of us left on earth that have to deal with their fucking mess. But let's not spend a penny of rightwing conservative tax dollars tackling something they don't believe in like climate change, let's invest in their God because he's sooooo fucking real and they can prove it... oh wait, no they haven't and apparently can't, but that's their plan anyway.
I am willing to bet right-wing conservatives have encountered trans-people with or without their knowledge—both. I am willing to bet some individual transsexuals live out of the spotlight and quiet lives where merely a 'handful' of conservatives know their familial or social gender characterization.
As for God, it is the same right-wing evangelicals who tout (daily, continually) that nothing happens without God knowing and being in "control" who fail to realize that if it is so. . . then all things work together for God's purposes. Thus, perhaps God is observing evangelicals. . . as they persecute and vex a minority trying and striving to live in their midst only to be beaten down and defeated through hatred. . . and remarkably stupid superstition.
And let's not forget-- God voted Democratic in the last election!
Well if one believes God knows everything and is in-Charge, then it is clear that God wanted Trump to win. It remains to be seen if God wants us to lose our democracy too. May be we should just 'lay down' and let this autocracy come into being. We can always see if God will take it away afterwards. Or leave it in place longer.
I think most have without their knowledge and a small percent have with. But my point was that there is a whole lot of screaming and hollering from conservatives about transgender Americans, but when you look closely, very few, literally a handful, could even reasonably claim they had in some way been harmed or even inconvenienced by a trans person or even a policy that was adopted for a trans person. A school making the announcement that trans students can share the same restrooms with other students is NOT some immediate harm having been done to conservative children, they may not even have a trans student at the school.
But the simple fact that society is making space for those who they consider "sinners" or "defective/broken", is to them somehow "harm" which is why they scream to the sky at the very thought of their child having to go into a restroom with a trans person. Sure, they might not even have kids and the school in their area doesn't have any trans students, but they don't let that stop them from being "outraged"! And I believe that fact proves their intelligence levels as they can't even see that they aren't being personally harmed in any way.
Like wild animal, they think it's perfectly acceptable to just rage and smash around with righteous indignation attacking those who have done nothing accept exist and ask to be treated with kindness and empathy like anyone else. And they do so without having been harmed at all, so their thrashing about only serves to expose them as the thoughtless wild animals with no self-control they are.
I do not rule out the possibility of a prime mover, a creator God of some sort. However, I have seen nothing yet to convince me that anyone else has ever found any actual evidence of a specific God who they name and identify and claim they "know" what that God wants of them and for them. So far human history has shown that humans have used the names of many Gods to justify their actions, and almost every one of those actions were wholly terrestrial in nature, either over resources or some personal slight that one ruler couldn't accept from another. And that's no different today, rightwing religious conservatives use their supposed belief in "their" God to justify how they treat those in the lgtbq community as well as atheists and the liberals and progressives who support diversity and equal rights for all.
If you're to believe the rightwing religious conservatives, their God made hundreds of thousands of humans around the planet by allowing the birth of 1 out of roughly 2000 births to have some form of ambiguous or atypical genitalia, also known as a difference of sex development (DSD) or intersex traits, but now that God supposedly tells his followers those people can't exist as they were born, they must conform and be whatever gender their doctor chose for them at birth, or they're going to burn in hell.
Well, if there is a God who is observing all this, I have no reason to believe it's "their" God. If it were and was actively watching their actions, then that God has blood on its hands and is just as responsible for those many lives that their religious hate and discrimination has caused. I think there is an open and shut case to be made to show that religious based discrimination against the lgtbq community has led to thousands if not tens of thousands of suicides over the last several decades.
I think it's reasonable to assume that kind of gap between the general population and the lgbt youth is directly related to how society, specifically rightwing religious conservatives, treat lgbt youth and the idea of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
So, when kids are literally dying because of how these religious dickwads are using their faith, pointing out the fact that they can't even prove their God exists seems important. If they can prove their God exists and that it really hates its own creations and wants a society that is so toxic towards its own creations that they want to kill themselves even before becoming adults, then fine, their God can take responsibility. But if they can't prove that God exists, then any who are supporting a society that demeans, ridicules and oppresses those children who just happened to be born differently have blood on their hands.
To this I agree as what comes to mind is National Review William H. Buckley's pronouncement: "It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."
And so it remains the conservative intend to be so perpetually.
I would go one step farther. There is no need to question the existence of their God; the problem I find lies with their (human) faith. That is, rightwing evangelicals do not follow their God's new testament, having given themselves quite the fancy for wanting never to leave 'the tutor/ing' in the Old Testament as they were directed to do in coming into the new testament age.
It is startling to me to hear churches overusing/abusing the old testament history as directives to the the church today! It is ignorant. Reckless. Arrogant.
They no longer care what God wishes now. They message and act on what they want and that is to take over and dominate what they see as the corrupting of the world. Even while they do not remember the history of the world and this nation that when the Church untethers itself from its 'north star' - the Bible meaning itself- it becomes a greater danger in this nation (any nation) than other problems. The Church must remember this: The Church is never been to be a hindrance to society. It is mean to be a peace-maker. And as such it should began by fixing its own internal divisions, which should give it ample to do.
We can add brain drain to the list of Trump fuckups.
Don't let the door hit you where the good lord spilt you on the way out of the country "scientists".
Do us all a favor and renounce your citizenship as well. Don't be a fraud like Rosie O'Donnell.
Glad to see Europe finally stepping up. Now if they would get their damn military they promised Trump during his first term together we could withdraw our troops and bases and save massive amounts of money. Maybe turn it towards repairing our failing infrastructure for a change?
Love the tears from a bunch of TDS wack jobs that have no damn idea who is being fired or what is being cut- but are screaming bloody murder about it anyways.
Surprised there isn't some Democrat filing a law suit in DC with a leftist POS judge willing to put party before country trying to stop this. Must have missed this one with all of the other frivolous lawsuits they have filed.
It's attitudes like those you expressed that will turn America into one of those famed 'shitholes'.
Can't help but wonder why he's so negative about America?
Sure, we have our faults, but compared to most of the rest of the world...?
(Perhaps he should travel a bit?)
/
They don't have to do any damn thing MAGA wishes for them to do. In fact, since spite is the thing—in four years (God willing) they can come back to a country with a renewed vigor in the sciences and pick up where this country faltered and stalled. Alas, some of those scientists will be happier in their new home of Europe and not wish to return.
It is one of the interesting things about the U.S. presidency that world dictators have always understood. . . in the United States. . . every four years there is the possibility for change out at the top. . . generally-speaking, dictators whom expect to be around, just wait/hold out until the change they wish to see comes. Such is the case with these researchers and scientists who go away.
Canada could use doctors and nurses, and should actively pursue them with attractive benefits.
Many years ago, apparently nursing was not much of a respected occupation. But apparently things have been changilng. (For one thing, from what I've seen, the profession has become much more respected. And with that it seems the job now pays fairly well (?)
Whether or not respected, but very much needed.
My daughter is a NICU nurse and now works part time because she doesn't need the money that she made full time. She should go to Canada. Maybe not
Amazing! What attracted these concerned scientists to the United States? Apparently not the quality of knowledge, innovation, or dedication to discovery at American colleges and universities. They didn't come to the United States to teach. It was the appeal of free money that brought them here. And now that the free money may be drying up, these scientists are searching for greener pastures. The need for free money is a powerful motivation for science.
The Manhattan Engineering District produced a real product (weapon) that brought about the end of WWII by killing hundreds of thousands of people in a most dramatic fashion. And all those foreign Manhattan scientists were enthusiastically on board until the Trinity test. The scientists at Los Alamos rationalized that the Japanese weren't NAZIs and hadn't murdered millions of Jews. The bright eyed Manhattan physicists weren't concerned about the potential for millions of casualties to end the war using conventional weapons. Their bloodlust for retribution had been satisfied with the defeat of Germany. The cold footed Manhattan scientists wanted science only for their own self serving gratification.
Scientists outing themselves as mercenaries ranks high on the new-o-meter with Jeffery Goldberg outing himself as a national security risk. Those attacking Trump certainly have a penchant for revealing too much about themselves. And they seem to be attracted to the wrong sort of analogies.
Joe Btfsplk was not someone to emulate, Nerm_L.
Advice or a reminder?
Didn't you recognize that the article explicitly focuses attention on the mercenary nature of scientists? There is a meager attempt to identify discriminatory attitudes as an excuse. But the core theme is really all about the money. It looks like government research money is drying up. And the easy out is to leave the country for greener pastures rather than invest effort into attracting private sector benefactors.
... as in writing papers for the drill-baby-drill 'environmentalists'?
When my mother left Greece in 1946 I can assure you it had zilch to do with any mercenary 'ideals'. Of the 850,000 europeans who fled from 46-48 I doubt that even 1% had any ideal other than get me and my family the hell out of here.
What does that have to do with the price of cabbage in Kiev? Are you suggesting your mother was recruited by academia and government with promises of funding? That is a prominent theme of the article being discussed.
There is nothing within the article that rhymes with mercenary, you are doing your usual rampant nihilist shtick of finding fault anywhere and everywhere.
Over-generalize much, Nerm?
The article lays it all bare. The Federal government is cutting research funding. So, don't deny that money is the motivation.
Foreign countries see this as an opportunity to recruit scientists for the US using money. And scientists in the US are looking for foreign funding opportunities.
Cut & paste editorializing won't hide the simple fact that the need for free money is a powerful motivation for science. It's all about the money.
Not surprising-- since the Jewish population in Jaopan at the time wasn't especially large!
But certainly you must've known that, eh Nerml?
But while there weren't a lot of Jews in the area, there were a lot of Chinese. (See, for example, " The Rape of Nanking " ... also quite horrifying: "Unit 731" ).
So, tell us again, what motivated the scientists at Los Alamos to invent the atomic bomb? Don't ignore what the article has told us. The physicists were recruited 'from around the world' (the world being limited to Europe, of course) to create a weapon of mass destruction. And many of the notable physicists responsible for birthing the atomic bomb were European Jews.
It's a prominent facet of the historical record that many of the scientists involved with the weapon program was motivated by the defeat of NAZI Germany. Albert Einstein lobbied FDR to build a bomb because of the NAZI threat. The NAZIs were their enemy and their target. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't a driving incentive for creating the bomb because, as you say, the Jewish population in Japan wasn't especially large. The recruited scientists and physicists didn't have very much skin in the Japanese war.
Very scary to know we will be losing some of our brightest so they can do what they have been educated to do. More power to them.
Some may just decide to weather the storm for 4 years, but what if......?
''Trump says he's 'not joking' about possibly running for a third term – even though he can't''
LINK -> Trump says he's 'not joking' about possibly running for a third term
Apparently he also wasn't joking when he said he'd make Canada a U.S. state, or that the U.S. would take over Greenland.
Oh-- and apparently he also wasn't joking when he said he'd get all the Arabs out of Gaza and make the whole place a luxurious Beach resort.
If you read the article I posted you wouldn't be joking about it. At least the possibility of his having the support of 2/3rds of Congress isn't likely to happen due to what Trump/Musk have been doing, but according to the article there could be methods.
This amazes me. You (everyone) are looking at legal constraints. Trump doesn't give a flying fuck about the law, and neither the
RepublicanFascist Party controlled Congress nor theRepublicanFascist Party controlled courts seem motivated to stop him.He may simply sign an Executive Order making himself President-for-life. And then refuse to leave.
Would any "law enforcement officer" dare enter the White House to arrest him?
The newly elective president would move in to the White House on top of him. And, of course, the military would not serve a deprecated 'president' who has outlived its use.
Note: I love how Pete Buttigieg put it back in 2020 primaries: 'Well, Chad and I, would live in the White House and he would live 'somewhere' on the grounds.' (Paraphrased.)
Trump says poll numbers should earn him a third term. But the US Constitution disagrees
LINK -> Trump says polling supports third term. The US Constitution disagrees
So what if Vance runs for PotUS in 2028 and wins, appoints Trump to be his VP, and then resigns?
I don't need to watch movies to see a horror story - I'm watching a real life one right now.
Do you think Trump gives a flying fuck about the Constitution?
What do YOU think I think?
The equivalent of cleaning out the bottom of the refrigerator.