Keeping science alive Academic refugees from 'crazy' America find asylum in France

It was on a US-bound flight in March, as Brian Sandberg stressed about whether he would be stopped at security, that the American academic knew the time had come for him to leave his home country.

- Ashifa Kassam

For months, he had watched Donald Trump's administration unleash a multipronged attack on academia - slashing funding, targeting international students and deeming certain fields and even keywords off limits. As his plane approached the US, Sandberg worried that he would face reprisals over comments he had made to the French media about the future of research in the US.

"It makes you think about what your status is as a researcher and the principle of academic freedom," he said. "The entire system of research and higher education in the United States is really under attack."

Soon after, he applied for a French university's pioneering offer of "scientific asylum". The programme launched by Aix-Marseille University was among the first in Europe to offer shelter to researchers reeling from the US crackdown on academia, promising three years of funding for about 20 researchers.

Last week, Sandberg was revealed as one of the 39 shortlisted for the programme. "The American system is being destroyed at the moment," he told the 80 reporters who turned up to meet the candidates. "I think a lot of people in the United States and as well as here in Europe have not understood the level to which all of higher education is being targeted."

As reports began to emerge of funding freezes, cuts and executive orders targeting institutions in America, their counterparts in Europe began making plans to lure US-based academics.