Catalonia, on the hunt for researchers who want to flee the United States
The government is finalizing a plan to recruit scientists harmed by the Trump administration and market the country as a benchmark in R&D.
The Ministry of Research and Universities is currently finalizing a plan to attract American talent who, due to the actions of the Trump administration, are considering coming to Europe to continue their research. The initiative is divided into two phases, according to sources from the Catalan government who explained to ARA. The first will focus on recruiting researchers from the American research system on competitive terms, with the aim of consolidating Catalonia as a leading R&D destination.
The second will also assess the impact of the decrease in funding from US institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on Catalan projects that rely heavily on these funds, in order to find ways to solve this problem.
"The initiative in which we are working with the objective of offering a framework for support for the recruitment, circulation and retention of talent that is currently available in the United States," Minister Núria Montserrat tells ARA, who specifies that the program "includes the attraction of talent at different moments of the career academic and scientific" and, moreover, "to integrate a clear strategy to encourage female talent."
With this plan, adds Montserrat, the Government wants to anticipate the consequences that may arise from the latest actions of the Trump administration in terms of knowledge, research and innovation.
"When the Soviet Union fell, Europe missed the opportunity to secure the best Russian scientists, who went to the US. Now we once again have a unique opportunity to attract top-level researchers working in the United States," says ICREA researcher Luis Serrano, director of the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG). In fact, he explains that he has already held talks along these lines with the ICREA Foundation, the Catalan government's instrument for recruiting talent for Catalan institutions, and with the Association of Institutes of Excellence in Biomedicine in Europe, EU-LIFE.
"Many of us have already begun to receive contact from researchers who want to leave the US and are interested in coming to work here," explains fellow ICREA researcher Tomàs Marquès, professor at Pompeu Fabra University and principal investigator at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE-CSIC-UPF) and IBE-CSIC-UPF. "It's a fantastic opportunity to attract top-notch minds," he believes, adding: "Catalonia, Spain, and Europe should create a program to attract these scientists who want to come and research." Marquès emphasizes, however, that "we need to find a fast-paced and competitive system," because "it's clear they won't come for the salary of an associate professor."
In this regard, ICREA's Arcadi Navarro, professor of genetics at Pompeu Fabra University and director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, highlights that current universities and legislation allow for some research positions that could serve to attract talent. "By allocating a few resources, we can mobilize to hold regular and special calls to attract the diaspora of researchers who see that in Europe we have not yet fully grasped the scientific understanding," he states.
"Catalan research centers of excellence are competitive in Europe; perhaps not in salaries, but we are in working conditions, and we can be very attractive to an American scientist," believes Serrano, who emphasizes that specific, and likely joint, action is necessary. "Of the 800 billion euros that Europe will now allocate to defense, if they set aside 1 billion [0.12%] it would be enough to attract scientists and have a significant positive impact on the continent," he emphasizes.
Will the EU make its move?
And what will the European Union do? According to what has been published The Country According to sources within the European Commission, the executive branch has received requests from parliamentarians, member states, and companies to strengthen talent acquisition programs to attract researchers currently working in the US. Although it is still too early to specify specific measures, the newspaper indicates that the possibility of the European Research Council (ERC) increasing funding from €1 million to €2 million for principal investigators who move to the EU is on the table, and that a first step would be to modify the call for advanced grants, which will open in May.
