European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday announced a pledge of €500 million ($566 million) in research funding to tempt scientists to move to Europe.

The promise comes as US researchers face funding cuts under President Donald Trump's administration. Several bloc members have already signaled desire to lure disgruntled academics to Europe.

What is the EU hoping to achieve?

"We want scientists, researchers, academics, and highly skilled workers to choose Europe," von der Leyen told the "Choose Europe for Science" conference at Paris's Sorbonne University.

"Europe has everything that is needed for science to thrive. We have the stable and sustained investment. We have the infrastructure. We have the commitment to open and collaborative research," she added.

The new package, for the years 2025-27, was intended "to make Europe a magnet for researchers," von der Leyen said.

US universities and research facilities have faced a ramping up of political and financial pressure under Trump, including threats of massive federal funding cuts.

While not mentioning Trump's administration by name, von der Leyen said the undermining of free and open research was "a gigantic miscalculation."

Von der Leyen used the example of the Sorbonne's own renowned physicist and chemist Marie Curie, who was born in Poland — then occupied by Russia — but moved to France to study and pursue a career. In 1903, Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She followed up her Nobel Prize for  physics with a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1911, and remains the only person to win two Nobel awards in different fields.

Also speaking at the event, French President Emmanuel Macron said the science policies of Donald Trump, who has accused his country's elite universities of pursuing a left-wing ideology and allowing on-campus antisemitism, were a mistake.

"Nobody could have imagined that this great global democracy, whose economic model depends so heavily on free science... was going to commit such an error," he said.

"We refuse a diktat consisting of any government being able to say you cannot research this or that."

Why might US researchers move to Europe?

US research programs are facing closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired and foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views.

The French president has already appealed to foreign, notably US, researchers to "choose France."

Macron last month unveiled plans for a funding program to help universities and other research institutes cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to the country.

Aix Marseille University in the south of France in March announced a "Safe Place for Science" scheme that would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts.

In early February 2025, the president of Germany's Max Planck Society, Patrick Cramer, reported that applications from the US had at least doubled, and in some cases, even tripled. 

Institutions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden have also made explicit efforts to attract US academic talent.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic