Last week, Aix Marseille University, France’s largest university, invited American scientists who believe their work is at risk of being censored by Donald Trump administration’s anti-science policies to continue their research in France. Today, the university announced that it is already seeing great interest from scientists at NASA, Yale, Stanford, and other American schools and government agencies, and that it wants to expand the program to other schools and European countries to absorb all the researchers who want to leave the United States.
“We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Éric Berton, Aix Marseille University’s president, said in a press release. “We will do everything in our power to help as many scientists as possible continue their research. 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.”
The press release from the university claims that researchers from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute of Health, George Washington University, “and about 15 other prestigious institutions," are now considering “scientific exile.” More than 40 American scientists have expressed interest in the program, it said. Their key research areas are “health (LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), environment and climate change (natural disaster management, greenhouse gases, social impact, artificial intelligence), humanities and social sciences (communication, psychology, history, cultural heritage), astrophysics.”
“The current Executive Orders have led to a termination of one of my research grants. While it was not a lot of money, it was a high profile, large national study,” one researcher who has reached out to Aix Marseille University in order to take advantage of the program told me. 404 Media granted the researcher anonymity because speaking about the program might jeopardize their current position at a leading American university. “While I have not had to lay off staff as a result of that particular cancellation, I will have to lay off staff if additional projects are terminated. Everything I focus on is now a banned word.”
The program, called “Safe Place for Science,” initially will fund 15 researchers with 15 million Euros.
Aix Marseille University says that it is already working closely with the regional government and France’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry “to facilitate the arrival of these scientists and their families in the region, offering support with employment, housing, school access, transportation, and visas.”
“We are doing what is necessary to provide them with the best living environment. We are ready to welcome them and will make them true children of the country!” Renaud Muselier, President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, said in a statement in support of the program.
The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in particular have already frozen federal grants and loans for the National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation, fired NASA’s chief scientist, and fired thousands of workers across the federal government, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, critical for weather forecasting for natural disasters. The language of many of his executive orders is also so broad that researchers at public universities and other research institutions worry they’ll lose funding for their work if they even mention climate, gender, race, or equity, terms that the Trump administration has been trying to wipe off any federal site and program.
“It is surreal that people are so scared and silent, because scientists and administrators are worried about losing ALL of their funding or MOST of their funding if they appeal or speak out against terminated grants,” the researcher at the leading American university told me. “I have been shocked that many in academic leadership seem to not see how similar these actions are to other totalitarian regimes—which have taught us that we have to push back hard on EVERYTHING that is unethical and inhumane, not just the thing that affects us personally the most.”
