The Aix-Marseille University in France was flooded with the applications of scientists based in the US after launching its pioneering program “Safe Science”, which aims to offer refuge for academics facing academic freedom and research funding in the United States.
Almost 300 scientists have asked for this program that promises three years of financing, access to top facilities and full integration into the pulsating scientific community of the University.
The aim of the “Safe Science” initiative, supported by up to 15 million euros from Amidex Foundation and supported by leading French research institutions, is to welcome about 15 scientists specializing in areas such as climate, health, social sciences and humanities and humanities, especially vulnerable to political or institutional pressures in the US.
The President of the University, Eric Berton, stressed that the program is determined to provide an environment that contributes to innovation, perfection and real academic freedom, and called on other European universities to follow.
The applications come from prestigious institutions, including NASA, Stanford, Yale and Johns Hopkins, noticing that the university has noticed a significant number of candidates in research areas with the risk of censorship or reducing funding in America.
The selection process is now underway and is expected to start successful candidates in early June. In addition to research funding, the program offers comprehensive support for relocation and integration, reflecting French ambitions to stand up as a global shrine for scientific talents.
The “Safe Place of Science” initiative is part of a larger European movement that attracts international scientists at a time when academic freedom is increasingly endangered in different parts of the world.
Hollande defenders of the state of the “scientific refugee”
François Hollande, a former French president and contemporary socialist deputy, recently joined his forces with Berton to call on France to recognize refugees from all over the world as refugees.
“Like the expression of divergence, their work, which is a source of innovation and knowledge, has become the risk of propaganda of regimes,” he wrote a couple recently in Libérac.
Academics, as well as journalists or political opponents, should be able to qualify for protection, claimed. “Current asylum mechanisms do not really take into account the specificities of the academic environment and the threats that scientists face in authoritarian regimes,” they wrote. “Therefore, we are submitting an urgent request that is suitable for the current situation: creating a state of” scientific refugee “.”
(Tagstotranslate) France University (T) AIX-Marseille University in southern France
