Trump's policies also jeopardize research in Catalonia.

BarcelonaDonald Trump has been back in the US presidency for only three months, but his initial actions and decisions are already having an unprecedented, detrimental impact on science and research around the world, including in Catalonia. "Here [in the US] chaos reigns right now," summarizes Núria López-Bigas, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), who has been coordinating an international cancer project from the University of California, San Francisco since July. "American researchers are very concerned because very radical decisions are being made that interfere with research funding, infrastructure, and which studies can and cannot be conducted," explains ICREA by telephone. "It's an attack and a lack of respect for the scientific world," she concludes.

For now, the Trump wave has arrived in our country, imposing a climate of uncertainty. Of the 42 Catalan centers of research excellence (CERCA), 28 have some kind of relationship, agreement, or stable collaboration with US organizations. Most are with public institutions, such as universities. This is the case of ICREA researcher Roderic Guigó, head of the bioinformatics and genomics program at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, ​​​​which since 2003 has received regular funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the main US government institution responsible for biomedical and public health research, and one of the main funders.

"The money we receive represents a third of my group's total budget," explains the bioinformatician, who currently holds two grants from this institution. One, for the ENCODE project, has now completed its fourth phase and is waiting to find out if they will be able to launch the fifth. At the moment, he summarizes, "there is a total standstill." "We haven't received any information, we don't know if they'll grant us [the scholarship], if they'll cut it, nothing," laments Guigó, who adds that "keeping staff on the projects depends on this funding."

He's not the only CRG scientist with "frozen" projects. Luis Serrano, ICREA researcher and director of the center, highlights that they have a "very important" eye transplant project funded by the US that is also currently on hold.

A similar situation affects Javier Martínez-Picado, also an ICREA researcher, principal investigator at IrsiCaixa, who is currently working on two NIH-funded projects related to the AIDS virus. In one, he participates in an international consortium with a budget of $38 million, of which Martínez-Picado's group receives around $2 million to research innate immunity. And in the other project, also international, worth $12 million, they will study the impact of immunotherapies on patients' genetics and epigenetics.

"Last week, our American partner, who acts as coordinator for the NIH, cut our budget by 30%, and another European partner cut it by 50%," he explains, adding: "We don't know what's going on or who's forcing any of the documentaries."

The cut could be related to the fact that the Trump administration has decided to dramatically cut so-called indirect costs, or overheads, at American universities and centers. These are the contributions institutions receive to cover their operating costs when one of their researchers receives public funding. Each institution negotiates these indirect costs with the NIH; in some cases, they can reach 80%: for every $10 a researcher receives, the university receives $8. In Europe, this amount typically does not exceed 21%.

Now Trump wants to establish a flat rate of 15% for all institutions, which has put all universities on a war footing, "because if the measure goes ahead, they'll go under. And that's why they're already trying to reduce costs," notes the virologist, for whom this drop "endangers research" in Catalonia and "will force staff to be laid off."

Not even showing up

Due to this situation of instability and uncertainty, some Catalan researchers have opted not to apply for proposals from American institutions, and therefore postponed or discarded their studies. "Submitting a project requires a lot of work, and I don't want to risk not being evaluated," admits ICREA member Arcadi Navarro, professor of genetics at Pompeu Fabra University and director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation. The same is happening at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), where several researchers, according to its scientific director, Denise Naniche, "have chosen not to apply for projects because they are related to climate change, and they know they won't be awarded them now."

"One of the things my colleagues tell me is that it would be better if I were not listed as a co-principal investigator, as I have been up to now, but as a subcontractor," explains, incredulously, ICREA Tomàs Marquès, professor at UPF and researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE-CSI). If this were the case, says Marquès, who insists that at the moment everything is "rumours" and there is no official communication, "that would have repercussions in terms of leadership, influence, curriculum and indirect costs that the university retains."

The Trump administration's decision to close national agencies dedicated to public health and the environment, as well as the Agency for International Development (USAID), cut funding to institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and withdraw from the WHO are already having repercussions on the health of millions of people. Last year, researcher Laia Alemany of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, along with several international groups and South African hospitals, requested grants from the NIH to study the interaction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) and HIV in the African country. Although they were granted a $400,000 grant, for the time being, "they have stopped all funding for these institutions," which, she laments, "will have a terrible effect on vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa."

In many cases, the ideological censorship imposed by Trump is also on top of this. Roger Paredes, head of the Infectious Diseases Service at Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and a researcher at IrsiCaixa, which participates in international projects on HIV and the monitoring of emerging pathogens, explains that all references to equality between men and women, people of different ethnicities, and individuals have been removed from the websites. "It's an unacceptable attack on the fundamental rights of individuals and academic freedom," he denounces.

Tariffs are another aspect that could negatively affect research conducted in Catalonia. In many sectors, materials come primarily from the United States, such as reagents in the biomedical field, but also infrared technologies for space missions. "We are installing a small telescope in Montsec that, among other things, will help us monitor space debris, and we are awaiting the receipt of the dome from a US company," explains Ignasi Ribas, director of the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC). "If Trump ends up imposing tariffs on the EU, and as a countermeasure, Europe also imposes them on American imports, the already expensive price of the instrument will increase by at least 25%, which poses a problem for us with our very tight budgets." This, according to this astrophysicist, "could determine whether or not projects are carried out in the coming years."

Closer to China?

This Trump crusade against science could also have geopolitical implications. Serrano believes that not being able to count on the Americans as partners will push Europe toward China. In fact, this biologist explains, the CRG already has several projects co-funded by the Asian country. "They have a lot of money and a lot of interest in establishing themselves in Europe," he points out, adding that "science is international; if doors are closed on one side, you must open them on the other." However, he admits, it will be necessary to "be careful with sensitive issues, such as human rights or confidentiality."

In this regard, he explains that there have already been rapprochements: recently, a Chinese delegation held a meeting—sponsored by the Generalitat (Catalan Government)—with representatives of Catalan research centers at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). "They are investing a lot of money in academic collaborations. At the CRG, they have paid for facilities, not out of love for science, but as a commercial strategy to enter the European market," Serrano adds.

"If only Europe were to allocate a tiny fraction of what it now wants to invest in weapons to research, we could turn the situation around," insists Naniche, for whom "science is a basic pillar of humanity, of progress, as the COVID crisis has shown us." For this researcher, European countries should unite to confront, with Europe's founding values, Trump's attacks on research and science.