Key points
- First US “refugee scientists” to arrive in France in weeks: university
- The candidates are US citizens or dual nationals
- The programme “Safe Place for Science” will open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts
ISLAMABAD: The first researchers fleeing US spending cuts imposed by President Donald Trump will start work at a French university in June, officials said Thursday.
AFP reported that Aix Marseille University said its “Safe Place for Science” scheme received a flood of applicants after announcing in March it would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts.
Of 298 applications, 242 were deemed eligible and “are being studied” for some 20 available posts, AFP cited the university as saying.
It said that 135 of the applicants were US citizens, and 45 were dual citizens.
“Refugee scientist”
University president Eric Berton said he wanted to see a new status of “refugee scientist” be created, and for more US researchers to be welcomed in France and Europe, according to AFP.
UK-based newspaper The Guardian reported that around 300 academics have applied to a French university’s offer to take in US-based researchers rattled by the American government’s crackdown on academia.
What they were offering – through a programme titled, “Safe Place for Science” – was a sort of “scientific asylum”, offering three years of funding at their facility for about 20 researchers, The Guardian reported.
Most applicants were experienced researchers in fields that ranged from the humanities to life sciences and the environment. The university said the selection process would start in the coming days, with the aim of allowing researchers to begin arriving in early June.
François Hollande, a former president of France and a current Socialist MP, recently joined forces with Berton to call for France to recognise embattled researchers from around the world as refugees, according to the Guardian.
