While the fund is open to researchers of all nationalities, it appears to be a direct response to growing concerns among American scientists about the tightening restrictions on academic freedom under President Donald Trump. Researchers in the U.S. have raised alarms over increasing government censorship, political interference in fields like climate science and gender studies, and tighter controls on scientific communication. France has already launched a program to lure disillusioned American scientists, and the Netherlands now aims to follow suit.
[…]
Dutch universities have already expressed interest in recruiting American researchers. The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), which represents the country’s 14 public universities, confirmed they are exploring ways to bring in U.S. scientists. “It seems like a good idea to us,” a UNL spokesperson said, emphasizing that strengthening Dutch innovation is a priority. The universities also see it as a way to stand in solidarity with American academics facing restrictions.
[…]
While nice, this seems at odds with the budget cuts to science that are horribly undermining our existing, high-quality scientific institutions. It would be much nicer if luring these US-based scientists were an addition to a larger package to invest in, rather than cut and destroy, science in the country.
We could certainly use the help, so they’d be very welcome, but if we’re still getting rid of hundreds of fully set up scientists while gaining a few new ones from this, that’s still a net loss…
Plus, any US-based scientist who might consider doing this would surely look at these budget cuts, see how countries like France and Germany are actually investing in scientific infrastructure, and take this into account when selecting a destination. If you want to “lure” people over, you do need to have an actual high-quality and functional system to show off.
Now this is how you import skilled “labour”, thanks Trump :D
Trump should be happy. He always complains that other countries aren’t importing enough from the US.
Makes sense after gutting education at home!
The academic cuts are kinda brutal from what I gather
Donald Trump just started the brain drain!
I mean… The minster has asked the main scientific funder to create such a fund, but did not allocate money to it, so… We’ll see what comes out of it.
The Aix-Marseille Université in France is offering a similar program to ‘welcome American scientists’ …
Weird, archive link says it’s excluded
That’s strange. Just tried to archive it again, and now it says, “There was a delay in registering this snapshot with the Wayback Machine.” Don’t know how to get around that, but the original link should work in 12ft.io
Are Dutch also pursuing people fluent in the Is the science of computer? Asking for a friend.
How about people from outside of US? Asking for myself.
