Trump sparks Europe’s 'new Enlightenment' 

Donald Trump’s war on some of America’s most iconic colleges is a major opportunity for European academia and research.

Now the EU is under pressure to seize it.

University professors and research center directors across the continent see silver linings in the U.S. president’s crackdown on American higher education, which includes targeting professors and students as well as heralded Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Columbia while freezing billions of dollars in federal funding.

“This is the chance for Europe to start a new Enlightenment and create new partnerships around the world,” said Alain-Laurent Verbeke, a law professor at Belgium’s KU Leuven research university who has also taught at Harvard Law School since 2007.

European universities and top politicians have mobilized in response to Trump’s domestic measures, creating new initiatives aimed at attracting top foreign talent to Europe by offering generous grants and greater academic freedom.

Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a €500 million plan named “Choose Europe for Science” aiming to lure foreign researchers to the EU.

“We are doubling the potential amount that researchers who relocate to Europe from anywhere in the world can request as relocation funds,” said Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council (ERC), the bloc’s public body for scientific and technological enquiry which is partnering with the Commission on the initiative. “We need to step up our efforts. And not because of what is happening in the U.S., we need to do it anyway.”

The Commission last month announced plans to accelerate visa procedures to attract U.S. researchers and EU research ministers met in Brussels on May 23 to discuss how to increase Europe’s competitiveness in science and innovation.

“Let’s use this momentum, and this opportunity, and attract the brightest and best talents of the world,” Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva said.

By massively boosting its research and academic development, the EU stands to strengthen its economic competitiveness and innovation, while putting itself in a better position to tackle critical challenges such as climate change and health care.

“Research is the foundation of the companies of tomorrow. By investing in research, we’re investing in Europe’s competitiveness and in the jobs of tomorrow,” said French Research Minister Philippe Baptiste.

Stepping up efforts

While Trump has provided the political momentum for Europeans to invest more in science and research, experts warn the EU will need to do far more to strengthen its position and achieve true independence from the U.S.

“It would be an illusion to think that a few additional high-level grants will be sufficient,” the ERC’s Leptin said.

“What top-level researchers need are good infrastructure, good support from their research institutions. Young people need good career prospects, they need good long-term funding,” she added, noting that it’s mainly up to EU member countries to “step up their efforts and make research attractive.”

Multiple European governments have reacted to the possibility of attracting top U.S. talent by establishing new grants and offering new postdoctoral positions.

Since Trump’s crackdown began, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium and Norway have launched targeted initiatives to attract foreign researchers by offering funding, institutional support and long-term career opportunities in fields like health, climate and AI.

Similarly, European universities such as Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and France’s Aix-Marseille University (AMU) have allocated funds to recruit postdoctoral scholars who are “victims of political and ideological interference” in the United States.

Fear and loathing

Top European academics observe that their counterparts in the U.S. have become increasingly cautious and fearful amid Trump’s repressive policies, which are often based on the pretext of rooting out alleged antisemitism and so-called woke ideologies on college campuses.

Jan Danckaert, rector of VUB, said U.S. researchers have started using anonymous email accounts and encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with international partners.

“This shows they are very much concerned about the way they contact institutions outside the U.S.,” he said, noting fears that even minor collaborations on projects that fall foul of the Trump administration could be used as a basis for further funding cuts.

Working with U.S.-based colleagues has become increasingly difficult since Trump began his second term in January, said Frank Oliver Glöckner from the Pangaea environmental data center.

“It is a combination of people fearing about losing their jobs and them not being able to maintain or deliver the same data anymore,” he explained.

Glöckner added that some U.S. researchers were now unable to join video conferences without top-level managerial approval. “This is the first time that we ever heard about something like that … and it changed from one day to another,” he said.

Self-censorship is also a growing problem among U.S. researchers, the European academics observe.

“They don’t want their names published in official media, in scientific reviews, or whatever,” Glöckner said.

Danckaert echoed that concern. “What we see from the colleagues in the U.S. is that there is a kind of auto-censorship installing,” he said. “They are much more cautious about the contacts they have and the way they communicate. They are always looking behind.”

After KU Leuven’s Verbeke publicly criticized Trump in the European press, he said several colleagues at Harvard privately thanked him for voicing opinions they themselves were unable to express.

“I understand professors who do not want to speak up, and I respect it, but at the same time, I think I have a moral duty to speak up,” he said.

Verbeke acknowledged that doing so could jeopardize his chances of obtaining a U.S. visa — or of returning to teach at Harvard.

“I am truly a transatlantic at heart, and I never imagined that we would one day reach a point where the very hotspot of academic freedom would be called into question,” German Minister for Research, Technology and Space Dorothee Bär said.

“That is why we must now be a safe country, a safe harbor, a safe continent. And yet, I’m not giving up hope that The Land of the Free will one day live up to its name again.”