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Twelve European ministers call for a coordinated reception of threatened researchers

by AI | 19.Mar 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Reacting to the sharp reduction in research budgets in the United States, twelve European ministers proposed that the EU host scientists in difficulty.

The European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, arrives at the weekly meeting at the Commission headquarters in Brussels, on March 5, 2025. (Photo: Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)

Paris – Twelve European ministers of Research signed a letter initiated by France on Wednesday requesting a European-wide meeting to coordinate the effort to host foreign researchers whose activities are threatened, as in the United States.

This letter, addressed to Ekaterina Zakharieva, the European Commissioner in charge of Start-ups, Research, and Innovation, calls for “immediate action and concrete political dialogue”.

This is to “show solidarity and a boost in attractiveness for hosting remarkable foreign talents who may suffer from obstacles to their research and abrupt, poorly-justified funding cuts,” the letter sent to AFP states.

French Research Minister Philippe Baptiste told AFP he had taken the initiative to mobilize his European counterparts “around the urgency into which the American administration’s policy on research subjects plunges us”, in other words the drastic budget cuts to some universities and research centers. (March 19, 2025)