America presented itself as a global superpower during the last century, and a large part of this power was derived from the country’s scientific and technological prowess. From aerospace medicine, some of the greatest thinkers in modern history have called the United States their house and pushed borders while living inside its borders.
This tradition is threatened in a way that it has never been previously as Donald TrumpThe administration of the administration is involved in the mass dismissal of federal government scientists, reduces the financing of scientific research and generally pushes a program which is opposed to the scientific survey.
The Trump administration threw hundreds National Institutes of Health (Nih) Research projects, licensees thousands agency scientists, and look intention By still saying the dismantling of the agency. Research financing for universities is also stripped. So climate science. Science is attacked in the United States wherever you look.
Trump’s attacks on science make American scientists anxious, and many plan to leave the country indefinitely. Almost 2,000 members National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine signed a letter in March warning the threat of administration towards science. A survey of the International Science Journal Nature At the end of March, 75% of American scientists plan to leave the United States. European countries are planning on the increase in their scientific funding, and countries like France,, Belgiumand the The Netherlands have launched programs to attract American scientists.
Jan Dancekaert, rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, said that his university has launched its own program to attract American scientists.
“Our university establishes a dedicated point of contact for researchers who wish to continue their work in Brussels,” explains Danckaert Roller. “American universities and their researchers are victims of a political and ideological interference of the Trump administration. They see millions of dollars in abruptly cut for ideological reasons. ”
In France, Aix-Marseille University has received nearly 300 applications Americans for its “Safe place for science” program. Europe has seen many scientists fleeing for the United States during the Second World War, and it now seems that experts are starting to flow in the opposite direction.
“I never thought of living in a country where I would see scientists looking for asylum,” said Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy of the Union of Scientists concerned by Massachusetts. “Some are looking for asylum because their work is no longer valued or funded. Some simply do not see the future of their careers here. ”
Jones says that she heard scientists who “actively seek positions abroad” and that these scientists are often at the beginning or at the end of their career. Those starting can easily move, and some who are at the end of their career might want to end it elsewhere. Many scientists are also from the outside of the United States and plan to go home.
“If we lose elements of the two generations, it is so difficult. You lose the highest and deepest level of expertise, ”explains Jones. “They are also the ones who frame and form the next generation. When you lose people at the start of your career, you lose a capacity that could take years or decades to regain. ”
Adam Siepel, computer biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, said he was planning to move to Europe or Canada. He says that the atmosphere in America is “very frightening” at the moment and “almost recalls Germany Nazi or the cultural revolution in China”. He says that many scientists are worried about the future.
“You are starting to wonder if it will be possible to do science in this country, and if there is a major flow of scientists to other countries, where should we go?” Said Siepel. “I am not yet ready to leave the United States, but I think we keep all eyes open and that we are looking for our options if things go really bad.”
Dr. Stephen Jones, a biochemist who is now working at the University of Vilnius in Lithuania, began to consider leaving the United States in the 2020 presidential election when he finished his post-doctorate at the University of Texas. He and his wife did not know how the elections were going to take place, but there was a lot of anti-science feeling during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe looked attractive. Even if Trump did not win this election, they decided to leave.
“Do you know what I don’t have to live at the moment?” “I have a friend who had to create a gofundme to maintain her laboratory (in America). I don’t think about these things. ”
Jones says he has advised other scientists on how to leave the United States for Europe. He says he did not have these meetings “before January of this year”. He also welcomed an American researcher to his team who recently completed his doctorate. Some European scientists who planned to move to the United States for work told him that they no longer considered this option.
“It will become, and it already becomes a brain flight,” explains Jones. “This is the kind of thing you do not see immediately. It takes time to manifest – sometimes because it must become bad enough for people to finally decide to go elsewhere.”
America’s brains leak has not only affected scientists. Jason Stanley, former professor of philosophy of Yale, expert in authoritarianism and author of How fascism works,, decided To take a job at the University of Toronto earlier this year. He said he feared that the United States will become a “fascist dictatorship” under Trump. (There is surely no reason to worry about an expert in fascism deciding to pack his bags and flee the country.)
The Trump administration claims to want to reduce public spending, but if it is part of its rationalization to eliminate the sciences, then it does not behave logically. Investing in fundamental science often generates more money than it costs.
“Each dollar spent on finding NIH results in about $ 2.50 in economic growth,” said Siepel. “I think about 90% of new drugs approved by the FDA started with the support of NIH.”
Not all scientists will leave at the same time, and so far, it is only a net that comes out of the United States, but it is clear that the future of science is in question in America. If things continue on the way they are on, more and more scientists will decide to work elsewhere. This will make the United States less competitive and deprive it of significant innovations.
“It is much easier to break things than to build them. Unfortunately, we are in the break phase at the moment, ”explains Dr. Jones. “Building materials are used elsewhere in the world now.”