French university opens doors to American researchers

[thewayne]

Aix-Marseille Université accepted applications from NASA, Yale, and Stanford scientists to move to France and continue their research under, shall we say, less politically-fraught conditions. The president of the université said, "We expect to be able to raise up to 15 million euros for a 3-year program, and will be working with local institutions to host around 15 researchers."

I expect other smart countries to do this. I know there are companies that already have facilities in Canada that are moving all operations up there. Apparently no one running the country realizes what the long-term ramifications of academic brain drain will have on the country.

https://www.univ-amu.fr/en/public/actualites/safe-place-science-aix-marseille-universite-ready-welcome-american-scientists

Article paywalled:
https://www.404media.co/nasa-yale-and-stanford-scientists-consider-scientific-exile-french-university-says/

Comments

[arlie]

According to current Republican doctrine, university elites are part of the problem, and need to be gone. Researchers in for-profit companies are OK, provided on the one hand that they know their place, and on the other that their research has immediate product applications.

I think they want to live in a scientific backwater, not understanding that this will ultimately be a standard of living backwater. Or maybe they figure that "everyone" will learn their place and remain in the US, which is after all the "best" country, yada yada yada. Any brain drain will be both temporary and small.

Seriously, though, opposition to research that isn't short-term profitable predates MAGA, and isn't limited to extremists among Republicans, though they generally want proportionately less, not none at all. And as for humanities - what possible use could they be, except to entertain a few of the business elite?

[thewayne]

Spot-on.  Nice things for me (the 0.01%) but not for thee (all the rest of us).  Sorry, a liberal democracy is a much more pleasant place to live in.  These people are idiots.

[ndrosen]

Fools indeed.

[pondhopper]

Having lived with a university professor/researcher in physics for over 50 years, I heard a lot about stuff like this and what the US is doing is creating a brain drain that will make top US universities fall to the bottom of the heap in the sciences especially. It's truly tragic. I have heard from University friends that US scientists are already coming to Spain which welcomes them with open arms.

[thewayne]

Such a tragedy that will be slow rolling and with such profound long-term consequences.  Because of advanced degree costs, I've been telling students to learn a foreign language and go to Europe, but few head me.

[disneydream06]

Apparently no one running the country realizes what the long-term ramifications of academic brain drain will have on the country.
One more step to keep control of their minions, get rid of the smart people. Country be damned. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

The uber-rich think that industry can do all the innovation and innovation needed.  They apparently have no idea how much comes from institutional research.  Very few of them have advanced degrees and have engaged in high-level institutional research.

[disneydream06]

A massive UGH to the desk sitters that push pencils. :o

[silveradept]

I thoroughly expect other countries to attract the top-tier talent that would normally go to or stay in the United States, and for the politicians that think it's priority one to make all of our universities spout unscientific doctrine to not understand why universities are turning out sub-par people who can't do the things that they want them to do in corporate research labs. Or why they then go on to other places and enrich them instead. It'll be easy for them to recognize that they've been tumbled down the rankings and that everywhere else is doing better than them, but it'll probably be the very hardest for them to realize that this is the consequence of their own actions and the way to reverse the trend is to stop being fucking authoritarians.

[thewayne]

I came across a very good quote in a book promo today: Science can go unexpected ways, we all know it. Science is not always made to be aligned with profiteering values. It might take years and resources, and even then not lead anywhere in the end. But it needs to be done. It’s how society advances. - Renan Bernardo  Teflon is one such example, it wasn't sought after, it was sort of a failure in research that was an unexpected success.  Few of the tech billionaires are scientists, most are MBAs or otherwise from the financial sector.  They don't understand the value of basic research, and thus won't understand that purely corporate-funded research will not be as successful as research at the university/government level where failure is not only tolerated, but kind of expected.

[silveradept]

They don't recognize how much of that basic research that never results in a product allows then to do research that does result in products, even if those products are similarly a bust, and I doubt they'll be willing to invest the kind of money the government does in building that research that never makes a profit.