The French University welcomes the first American researchers

Eight American researchers arrived in a university in the south of France, while the country pushes to offer “scientific asylum” to American academics struck by reductions in federal research expenditure under Donald Trump.

The University of Aix-Marseille (AMU) welcomed the researchers Thursday, after the launch of March of its “Safe Place for Science” initiative, the first among the 20 sets to be moved in the coming months.

The program has already attracted nearly 300 candidates from main institutions such as Stanford, Nasa and Berkeley.

Development comes as American universities have been threatened since Trump’s return to the White House with massive federal funding discounts, which means that research programs are facing closures.

Some staff members also fear possible detention and deportation to their political opinions.

AMU – One of the largest universities in France, with some 12,000 international students alone – is eager to provide a home to these academics, with research funding up to three years.

Historian Brian Sandberg said that he had decided to apply at the University of the Southern Provence region during a return trip to the United States from France, while he was afraid of facing the border arrest of his own country.

Although it has not been detained, “it makes you think about your status as a researcher,” said the academic of Illinois whose work focuses on religion, sex and violence.

Academic freedom “under attack”

Sandberg is now one of the 20 researchers specializing in subjects ranging from health, climate scienceAstrophysics and the humanities that take place in France in September. There, they hope to continue their research in what they consider a more open academic environment.

“The principle of academic freedom, as well as the entire research and higher education system in the United States is really attacked,” said Sandberg.

“If I stay in the United States, I can continue to teach, but as a researcher, for the next four years, we are stuck,” he said, referring to Trump’s mandate.

A academic who asked for anonymity said that Trump’s policies were directly led his work on sex and global warming at the origin of man.

“Apparently, one of the prohibited words … is” woman “,” she said. “I don’t know how you can move around for women without using the word,” she said.

In February, the Washington Post pointed out that the National Science Foundation reported research using terms such as “woman” and “women” who could rape Trump’s orders that overturned diversity initiatives.

But she said that her decision to move to France went beyond her professional freedom.

“I have children, I don’t want them to grow in a very hostile area,” she said.

A “scientific asylum program”

The AMU program is part of a larger push to take advantage of the massive reductions in the funding of US President Donald Trump for education.

In May, France and the EU announced its intention to attract American researchers in the hope of benefiting from the potential brain flight by supporting the reception costs of foreign researchers.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the growing pressure on the university world by the administration of Trump “a mistake”, encouraged American scientists to “choose France”.

He announced that his government would affect 100 million euros ($ 117 million) to help attract foreign talents. French legislators have presented a bill to create a special status for “scientific refugees”.

The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union will launch a set of incentives worth 500 million euros to make the block of 27 nations “a magnet for researchers”.

For its part, AMU plans to welcome the other 12 American researchers in the coming months, with its budget of 15 million euros.

“Saving our American colleagues and welcoming them is also a way to welcome and promote global research,” said University President Eric Berton.

“This is a scientific welcome program, a scientific asylum program. And above all, we want to devote the concept of scientific refugees to law,” he added.

In recent years, France has already welcomed forced scholars from exile from Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestinian territories.

© 2025 AFP