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

[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.