‘Scientific asylum’: How Europe is luring US researchers amid Trump fears

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are hosting a conference in Paris to attract United States-based academics and researchers in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s targeting of universities.

European Union commissioners on Monday announced half a billion euros ($568m) in incentives to lure international academics to the continent at the Choose Europe for Science conference.

The meeting at Paris’s Sorbonne University is targeted at academics and researchers who fear their work will be threatened by billions of dollars of US government spending cuts for universities and research bodies as well as attacks on higher education institutions over diversity policies and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Pro-Palestinian foreign students in the US have been arrested and sent to detention centres, often without following due process, while universities have been pressured to punish professors speaking out against the Gaza war. Campaigners said the Trump administration’s actions, including revocations of permanent resident status of students, have a chilling effect on academic freedom – a cornerstone of the American education system.