French President Urges Scientists To 'Choose France, Choose Europe' As U.S. Research Faces Uncertain Future

France is rolling out the red carpet for global researchers—right as the U.S. pulls it out from under theirs.

In a bold effort to attract scientific minds affected by funding cutbacks abroad, French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a national campaign to position his country as a global sanctuary for research talent. 

“Researchers from around the world, choose France, choose Europe,” Macron urged in an April 19 LinkedIn post, framing the initiative as a strategic move in light of shifting international research dynamics.

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France Banks On Opportunity As U.S. Research Falters

France’s National Research Agency, which operates under the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, announced the “Choose France for Science” initiative on April 19. 

The program provides dedicated funding and infrastructure support for international scientists looking to continue their work in France. According to ANR, this initiative is a response to what it described as an “unprecedented wave of mobility among researchers around the world.”

Among the first to publicly support the initiative was Meta’s META chief AI scientist and a native of France, Yann LeCun. “Attempting to attract scientists from the U.S. to France is a smart move by President Macron,” he said in an April 20 LinkedIn post.

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He had previously warned that the U.S. “seems set on destroying its public research funding system” and said "many U.S.-based scientists are seeking a “Plan B.”

That concern isn’t theoretical. According to Nature, recent U.S. federal budget decisions have led to the termination of roughly 770 research grants by the National Institutes of Health, impacting scientific disciplines like climate change mitigation and HIV/AIDS prevention.

The state of Utah alone is projected to lose $126 million and 545 jobs due to proposed caps on NIH indirect funding, Axios reported on April 23. One casualty of these cuts was a global study on COVID-19 vaccine safety, which was shut down 13 months before completion, as reported by The Guardian on April 24.

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In response, nearly 300 researchers applied to a French university program specifically aimed at hosting American academics affected by these U.S. policies, The Guardian reported. The French engineering school CentraleSupélec even pledged $3.2 million to continue American-led research abandoned in the U.S., according to the institution’s announcement. 

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt echoed these concerns during the AI+Biotech Summit in Boston on April 21. “This looks like a total attack on all of science in America,” he said. “We’re up against China that is pouring a trillion dollars into this, and we’re screwing around with funding the core people to invent our future.”

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