Trump Is Sparking Europe’s "New Enlightenment"

The Felon is waging war on higher education - actually, education in general given the Felon's diktats and red states' efforts to censor curriculums to remove not only references to gays but any accurate history or science that conflicts with the fragile sensibilities and/or prejudices of the MAGA/white "Christian" nationalist GOP base. Indeed, the highly educated are least likely to support the Felon's regime and are being labeled as "enemies." Add to this the fact that research funding for everything from cancer research, vaccine development, to NOAA is being slashed and thousands of academics and scientists have lost their jobs or are fearful of censorship or arbitrary firings that could happen at any moment. All of this is creating a climate and brain drain that will harm the United State's long term competitiveness on the global stage and lead to a sicker, less healthy American populace.  Internationally, other nations, including China, are seeking to recruit disaffected or unemployed researchers and academics and aid a brain drain from America.  A piece in Politico looks at how the European Union is seeking to take advantage of America's self-inflicted harm to build its own research and educational advantage.  Here are highlights:

Donald Trump’s war on some of America’s most iconic colleges is a major opportunity for European academia and research.  Now the EU is under pressure to seize it.

University professors and research center directors across the continent see silver linings in the U.S. president’s crackdown on American higher education, which includes targeting professors and students as well as heralded Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Columbia while freezing billions of dollars in federal funding.

European universities and top politicians have mobilized in response to Trump’s domestic measures, creating new initiatives aimed at attracting top foreign talent to Europe by offering generous grants and greater academic freedom.

Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a €500 million plan named “Choose Europe for Science” aiming to lure foreign researchers to the EU.

“We are doubling the potential amount that researchers who relocate to Europe from anywhere in the world can request as relocation funds,” said Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council (ERC), the bloc’s public body for scientific and technological enquiry which is partnering with the Commission on the initiative. “We need to step up our efforts. And not because of what is happening in the U.S., we need to do it anyway.”

The Commission last month announced plans to accelerate visa procedures to attract U.S. researchers and EU research ministers met in Brussels on May 23 to discuss how to increase Europe’s competitiveness in science and innovation.

By massively boosting its research and academic development, the EU stands to strengthen its economic competitiveness and innovation, while putting itself in a better position to tackle critical challenges such as climate change and health care.

“Research is the foundation of the companies of tomorrow. By investing in research, we’re investing in Europe’s competitiveness and in the jobs of tomorrow,” said French Research Minister Philippe Baptiste.

“What top-level researchers need are good infrastructure, good support from their research institutions. Young people need good career prospects, they need good long-term funding,” she added, noting that it’s mainly up to EU member countries to “step up their efforts and make research attractive.”

Since Trump’s crackdown began, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium and Norway have launched targeted initiatives to attract foreign researchers by offering funding, institutional support and long-term career opportunities in fields like health, climate and AI.

Similarly, European universities such as Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and France’s Aix-Marseille University (AMU) have allocated funds to recruit postdoctoral scholars who are “victims of political and ideological interference” in the United States.

Top European academics observe that their counterparts in the U.S. have become increasingly cautious and fearful amid Trump’s repressive policies, which are often based on the pretext of rooting out alleged antisemitism and so-called woke ideologies on college campuses.

Jan Danckaert, rector of VUB, said U.S. researchers have started using anonymous email accounts and encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with international partners.

“This shows they are very much concerned about the way they contact institutions outside the U.S.,” he said, noting fears that even minor collaborations on projects that fall foul of the Trump administration could be used as a basis for further funding cuts.

Glöckner added that some U.S. researchers were now unable to join video conferences without top-level managerial approval. “This is the first time that we ever heard about something like that … and it changed from one day to another,” he said.

Self-censorship is also a growing problem among U.S. researchers, the European academics observe.  “They don’t want their names published in official media, in scientific reviews, or whatever,” Glöckner said. . . . “They are much more cautious about the contacts they have and the way they communicate. They are always looking behind.”

After KU Leuven’s Verbeke publicly criticized Trump in the European press, he said several colleagues at Harvard privately thanked him for voicing opinions they themselves were unable to express.

“I am truly a transatlantic at heart, and I never imagined that we would one day reach a point where the very hotspot of academic freedom would be called into question,” German Minister for Research, Technology and Space Dorothee Bär said. “That is why we must now be a safe country, a safe harbor, a safe continent.

Americans' life expectancy has already fallen compared to Europe and with cuts to research and the slashing of Medicaid coverage, the existing gap in life expectancy will likely only widen further. The irony is that many of those hardest hit will be the working class members of the MAGA cult.