#Science4EU: The EU Stands for Science
In a bid to transform Europe into a bigger global research hub, the European Union and France are launching a multi-million-euro initiative to make the EU a "magnet" for top international scientists. The move comes amid rising geopolitical tensions and concerns over political interference in scientific research, particularly in the United States. But even as leaders promised hundreds of millions of euros, some European researchers expressed scepticism, questioning whether enough is being done to strengthen research at home.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the plans before several hundred researchers and university representatives gathered in the grand amphitheatre of the Sorbonne.
Without naming him directly, Macron began with a series of veiled criticisms of his American counterpart, Donald Trump. "No democracy can endure for long without free and open science," he declared, denouncing the repeated challenges by American authorities to "facts and truth".
"Just a few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the world’s greatest democracies would cut research programmes simply because the word 'diversity' appeared in them," he added.
New EU and French funding
At a time when the role of science "is questioned", von der Leyen condemned "a gigantic miscalculation", stressing that Europe "will always choose science". "We want to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law in a new European Research Area Act," she stated.
The EU will also allocate a “new fund of 500 million euros” for the 2025–2027 period “to make Europe a magnet for researchers,” von der Leyen further announced.
Among the measures introduced is a new seven-year "super grant" for “the best and the brightest researchers and scientists from Europe and around the world”, as well as a doubling of the grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) to researchers relocating to the European continent.
On the French side, Emmanuel Macron pledged 100 million euros to support the relocation of foreign researchers to France, drawing from unused reserves of the France 2030 investment plan, according to the presidential office.
