Europe steps up efforts to recruit U.S. researchers

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In the past few months, as the Trump administration continues to suppress American science, many countries and regions, including Europe, Canada, and Australia, have stepped up incentives to recruit research talent from the United States. These incentives include increasing research funding and setting up special "talent attraction" projects. Many projects are supported by tens of millions of dollars in funds.

"We should see this as a way to help globalize research, not as a way to poach researchers," said Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council (ERC). As Europe's largest research funding agency, the ERC has doubled the "start-up funds" it provides to researchers moving to Europe to a maximum of 2 million euros, which researchers can use to relocate their laboratories or form research teams.

The ERC's plan is in addition to a broader European Commission initiative, the Select Europe for Research, which will invest €500 million in funding for researchers coming to Europe and is one of the most high-profile talent introduction schemes currently in place.

In France, several talent attraction programs have been introduced, and the government has also launched the "Choose France for Research" program to encourage international scientists to continue their research work in French scientific institutions. The program is run by the French National Research Agency and provides government funding to institutions interested in accepting researchers.

In addition to these government-led national projects, there are also a number of special talent introduction programs initiated by scientific research institutions, mainly targeting researchers in specific disciplines.

Germany's Max Planck Society has launched a transatlantic program to establish joint research centers with top U.S. universities and will offer more postdoctoral positions for U.S. researchers. A spokesman said the society has invested 12 million euros and is working with U.S. foundations to increase funding.

Several universities and research institutes have reported an increase in job inquiries from U.S. researchers. A spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne said the school has received an increasing number of applications from U.S. scientists. Julie Cairney, vice president for research at the University of Sydney in Australia, said the school has seen a similar situation.

But not everyone agrees that recruiting American talent is the right approach. “Actively poaching people will only exacerbate the problems faced by researchers in American research institutions,” said Jan Lowe, director of the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

Kieron Flanagan, a science policy researcher at the University of Manchester in the UK, agrees: “Governments need to look at their own research systems and why these scientists were not part of them in the first place.”

(Original title: "Many countries step up efforts to recruit American scientific researchers")