Safe Place for Science: French University Ready to Welcome American Scientists | Hacker News Reader

Safe Place for Science: French University Ready to Welcome American Scientists

univ-amu.fr

20 pointsGeekette7 comments

Maybe but isn't France cutting back on research funding? Their economy has been struggling as of recent, they're still below the 2008 peak https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/fra/fra...

Further I can't imagine Trump is going to be cutting engineering research, they're more likely to cancel gender/DEI research, which isn't exactly regarded as especially high quality research (even if it's only 10-15 million in funding)

According to a family member PhD programs are waitlisting candidates until they know what’s going on - and this includes biological sciences such as oceanography.

Loan deferral programs for medical students during residency have been canceled as well.

These are two examples of how my own family was impacted in fields that were not DEI related.

> Further I can't imagine Trump is going to be cutting engineering research, they're more likely to cancel gender/DEI research, which isn't exactly regarded as especially high quality research (even if it's only 10-15 million in funding)

No need to imagine:

https://www.rdworldonline.com/nsf-layoffs-in-2025-deep-budge...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/03/03/more...

https://www.wired.com/story/national-science-foundation-febr...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43152470

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43166830

I know many scientists in the hard sciences, some have already been laid off, others are in a holding pattern with funding frozen while they wait to see how things shake out. No one is just carrying on without any negative impact. I don't know where your rosy view of things is coming from, but it is completely wrong. The entire scientific establishment is going to be dealing with the repercussions of this for a long time to come.

> I can't imagine Trump is going to be cutting engineering research

Singular lack of imagination on display considering recent events

I will say on reddit people have been so fantastically imaginative and creative with their "predictions" it's become completely intolerable, and I've left the site.

The Trump admin seems to be going after waste and political government spending. DEI went under attack, and they've gone after fraud and other forms of abuse through USAID and government organizations. I'm sure they'll go after engineering research funding due to DoD cuts, and hopefully high F&A costs, but I would expect the majority of engineering research will remain intact. I try to be realistic in my understanding of what's happening, not imaginative.

"The AMIDEX foundation will support the funding of positions, particularly in the fields of climate, environment, health and human and social sciences (SHS)."

That's literally "pun intended" material

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