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Paris – Flagship for French research, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) launches a program to attract foreign scientists whose work is threatened, a movement encouraged by the executive.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, researchers and universities are in the crosshairs of his government and fear for their future, with academic and research freedoms undermined, funding slashed.
The first contacts reflect a “small momentum,” which concerns “for the vast majority of non-Americans,” explains Antoine Petit, the CEO of CNRS, to AFP.
The organization, the largest in Europe in terms of research with 34,000 agents, opens its arms to “colleagues currently prevented from conducting research,” but also to expatriate French researchers, some of whom “do not want to live and raise their children in Trump’s United States,” he says.
This initiative, called “Choose CNRS,” follows one initiated by the executive with the announcement in mid-April of a platform “Choose France for science.” (May 2, 2025)