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Supporters of free scientific research in Sacramento, California, on March 7, 2025. <\/p>\n
Penny Collins \/ Nurphoto <\/p>\n
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As the United States cuts funding for science and threatens universities, many researchers are looking to relocate, and Europe is rolling out the red carpet. Switzerland, however, is not trying to woo them.\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
August 4, 2025 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n
This spring, set against the historic backdrop of the Sorbonne University, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen rolled out a \u20ac500 million (CHF466 million) welcome mat for American scientists.<\/p>\n
Their efforts are a response to the US government\u2019s cutting billions of dollars in funding for science, rejecting settled research in medical policy, and pressuring universities to change their curricula. The EU\u2019s \u201cChoose Europe for Science\u201d plan is the first centralised initiative to attract international scientists onto European soil, augmenting individual countries\u2019 efforts to lure American researchers to more supportive institutions abroad.<\/p>\n
![\"Ursula](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/000_44H3444.jpg\")
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French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on stage announcing the \u201cChoose Europe for Science\u201d initiative. <\/p>\n
Gonzalo Fuentes \/ AFP <\/p>\n
But non-EU-member Switzerland is not taking part in the new scheme and is not planning any similar initiatives of its own. Many Swiss-based researchers and institutions see such actions as opportunistic and superfluous for a research system they believe is already attractive enough to outside scholars. The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)\u00a0called the EU\u2019s program \u201ca contradiction to the principle of competition and excellence in higher education,\u201d in comments to Swiss Public Television SRF. But others in Switzerland believe the US crisis could offer a unique opportunity to attract bright minds and bolster the competitiveness of the Swiss research ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Researchers pushed away by the US<\/p>\n
The US has long been the world\u2019s science superpower. Government money accounts for nearly $200 billion of a total of $900 billion spent on research and development in the country each year, accounting for about 3.6% of GDP. Europe as a whole spends $500 billion, while Switzerland invests about $31.3 billion annually, or 3.4% of its GDP.<\/p>\n
Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the US federal government has cancelled thousands of grants and plans $43 billion in cuts by 2026, especially at institutions like the National Institutes of Health (the biggest health-related research body in the world) and the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is also threatening to defund scientific institutions and universities if they continue to conduct research or run programmes related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as vaccines and climate change. Other topics, such as AI and quantum technology, remain top priorities in the government\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n
Claudia Br\u00fchwiler, a political scientist focused on American studies at the University of St Gallen, sees this as an unprecedented attack on academic freedom. She recently told the Horizons magazine that the US government has, \u201cin the name of freedom of speech, been cutting down freedom of speech, freedom of ideas and freedom of research\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Association of American Universities (AAU)\u00a0said in March that \u201cthe withdrawal of research funding for reasons unrelated to research sets a dangerous and counterproductive precedent\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult situation for people working on immunology and virology. US colleagues fear losing their grants, some of them were locked out of their labs, others left academia altogether,\u201d says Volker Thiel, a virologist at the University of Bern\u2019s Institute for Virology and Immunology (IVI).<\/p>\n
In March, three prominent Yale scholars decided to leave the US for Canada, citing fears over Trump administration policies. Also in March, 1,200 of 1,600 US-based researchers who responded to a poll by the science journal Nature said they were considering moving abroad.<\/p>\n
Europe responds to US cuts<\/p>\n
European countries responded to the possible exodus with initiatives at the local, national, and EU levels. Aix University in Marseille moved first, allocating \u20ac15 million for foreign researchers working on climate, health, environment, and social sciences. France was also active in pushing for the \u201cChoose Europe\u201d program, which will run until 2027. Spain has opened its purse with a programme worth \u20ac50 million per year. And Germany pledged to launch the program \u201c1000 K\u00f6pfe\u201d (1000 heads), which aims at attracting not only \u00e9migr\u00e9s from the US system, but also researchers who were destined for the US and are now looking elsewhere. In May 2025, the European Research Council (ERC) doubled the additional funding available for grantees relocating to Europe, from up to \u20ac1 million to up to \u20ac2 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ERC Scientific Council raised this \u201cstart-up\u201d funding to try to\u00a0help researchers based in the US in their current situation, but it is of course open to everyone worldwide moving to Europe,\u201d said ERC President Maria Leptin.<\/p>\n
None of these investments come close to matching what the US government is cutting, and critics worry that these initiatives won\u2019t be enough to make up the significant gap between Europe and the US when it comes to R&D expenditure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my doubts that Europe would be able to attract a lot of US scientists, as the academic salaries are way too low in most of Europe,\u201d says Marcel Salath\u00e9, co-director of the AI Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).<\/p>\n
Switzerland is still attractive from a salary point of view, Salath\u00e9 adds. The average salary for a full professor in the US is above $150,000, while in most European countries it is well below \u20ac100,000. In Switzerland it can go above CHF200,000.<\/p>\n
The Swiss approach: we are good enough<\/p>\n
In the face of all these EU initiatives, Swiss institutions have responded with a shrug. \u201cWe know that talented scientists from all over the world are attracted by attractive research environments, high academic standards, and international cooperation. Our universities offer such conditions and are therefore in a good position to compete for talent,\u201d a SERI spokesperson told SRF.<\/p>\n