Eight American researchers have arrived at a university in southern France, as the country pushes to offer "science asylum" to US academics hit by federal research spending cuts under Donald Trump. The University of Aix-Marseille (AMU) welcomed the scholars on Thursday, June 26, following the March launch of its "Safe Place for Science" initiative, the first among 20 set to relocate there in the coming months.
The program has already drawn nearly 300 applicants from top institutions such as Stanford, NASA and Berkeley. The development comes as US universities have been threatened since Trump's return to the White House with massive federal funding cuts, causing research programs to face closures. Some staff also fear possible detention and deportation for their political views. AMU – one of France's largest universities, with some 12,000 international students alone – is eager to provide a home for these scholars, with research funding for up to three years.
AMU's program is part of a broader push to cash in on US President Donald Trump's massive cuts in funding for education. In May, France and the European Union announced plans to attract US researchers in hopes of benefitting from the potential brain drain by supporting the costs of hosting foreign researchers.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the growing pressure on academia by Trump's administration "an error," has encouraged US scientists to "choose France." He announced that his government would earmark €100 million to help attract foreign talent. French lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a special status for "science refugees." European Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen has said the EU will launch an incentives package worth €500 million to make the 27-nation bloc "a magnet for researchers." For its part, AMU expects to welcome the other 12 American researchers in the coming months, with its budget of €15 million.
"Saving our American colleagues and welcoming them is also a way of welcoming and promoting global research," said the university's president, Eric Berton. "This is a science welcome program, a science asylum program. And above all, we want to enshrine the concept of science refugees in law," he added.
In recent years, France has already welcomed scholars forced into exile from Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.