Call to strengthen Europe's large databases: "Until now, we've relied on the Americans."
Researchers admit some concern that Trump might decide to cut off their access to the information networks he finances.
BarcelonaThe scientific impact of Donald Trump's return to the US presidency is still uncertain. However, researchers around the world are closely monitoring the decisions made by the US government because many of them have direct consequences for their work. So far, it has cut funding for projects from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and censored certain lines of research related to gender perspectives and the climate crisis, among others. In Catalonia, the situation is one of concern and uncertainty, especially in shared projects with centers on the other side of the Atlantic and due to the scientific information from large databases in the United States used daily by hundreds of researchers. Losing access to this information would change the paradigm of research as we understand it today, they warn.
"Science is a collective project of all humanity: either among others or not in sorts", said the director of the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA), Arcadi Navarro, who sees the need for a stable, open and collaborative framework between countries and alliances between professionals dels Estats Units, Europa and the rest of the mon to "assole an innovative science and amb impact." Every day researchers consult repositories of scientific articles and databases with which to base their research, and many of these tools are from US centers that receive public funding. According to sources from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), based in Barcelona, this international cooperation "strengthens the quality of research and favors the sharing of data, knowledge, and resources, which benefits the global scientific community."
While these large databases from the United States are the most used by the scientific community, they are not the only ones. Europe also has centers with a large amount of scientific information available to researchers, although they are not used as much as those from the United States. Tomàs Marquès-Bonet, a researcher at Pompeu Fabra University and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), explains that the American ones are more comprehensive, have better algorithms, and make work easier. Therefore, he warns, if coordination is cut off, it would be "problematic" for the rest of the community. The researcher believes that European countries should make greater efforts to provide service to researchers and so that they can work "as they have been doing until now" if there were to be an information blackout from the US.
For example, EMBL coordinates the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), which has one of the main scientific databases in Europe, and the center assures that it is working to guarantee access to this information. "We are committed to maintaining our data resources at the highest standards, guaranteeing reliable access to quality biological data for researchers around the world," sources from the center told ARA. However, Lluís Montoliu, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), also believes that these databases need to be strengthened and modernized. He states that much of the scientific content is the same on both sides of the Atlantic, but Europe "has trusted the American system" and has not promoted its tools.
Shared projects
Another element of concern is shared projects. In Catalonia, 28 of the 42 research centers of excellence (CERCA) have some type of relationship, agreement, or stable collaboration with US organizations. Most are with public institutions, such as universities. This is the case of researcher Roderic Guigó, head of the bioinformatics and genomics program at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, who traveled to Boston this week to monitor his group's projects. A third of the funding he receives comes from the United States, and since Trump's arrival, they have not received any more money for their research.
Even so, Guigó urges other countries to increase their research budgets, as studies and projects cannot be mortgaged by the decisions of a single country. "It is neither logical nor fair that resources so important for the entire world are funded exclusively by the United States. They are useful for everyone, therefore everyone should contribute," he argues. According to Guigó, US citizens spend 15 times more money on research than the Spanish population, and, in contrast, the likelihood of someone benefiting from scientific advances through the public system is higher in Spain.
Attracting talent
The other side of the coin is the recruitment of workers from American centers who, with the arrival of Donald Trump, are beginning to consider a change of scenery. In fact, the Spanish government has already moved to attract renowned researchers currently working in the United States, and this week it approved a call endowed with 45 million euros to incorporate, especially, researchers "despised" by Trump into the Spanish research system, according to the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant.
The Generalitat (Catalan government) also announced last week that it was launching a 78-place program in Catalonia this year for "high-level" researchers currently working in the United States. As reported by ARA,The Catalan government has drawn up a plan to hunt down American researchers who would be harmed by Trump's policies., called Catalunya Talent Bridge, and has allocated 30 million euros spread over the next three years.
