Netherlands considering recruiting American scientists fleeing the Trump administration
Scientific institutions in Europe and beyond are fighting to attract American scientists and researchers who want to escape the Donald Trump administration. Dutch institutions have not yet actively started recruiting, but are considering joining the fight.
The Trump administration is implementing large-scale budget cuts in academia and curtailing multiple research areas. A brain drain seems imminent and, according to the Financial Times, researchers and top officials from institutions in various European countries have been approached by American colleagues about possible relocations.
Dutch scientists have also had such talks with their American colleagues, a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) told the Financieele Dagblad. “We will see a battle for talent, for example, in areas where there are major labor shortages, such as mathematics or technology,” KNAW president Marileen Dogterom told the newspaper. “But it is now mainly our duty to support free science.”
A KNAW spokesperson told BNR that it is “busy with the discussion” about what the Netherlands can do in the area of recruitment.
The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) also told the broadcaster that discussions are happening. “We at NWO find all the sounds and signals we hear from the United States rather disturbing,” a spokesperson said. “At the moment, we are mapping out in more detail where the problems lie and what we as NWO can do about it, with the starting points that valuable research should not be lost and continuity of essential (digital) facilities should be guaranteed. And again we want to emphasize that science exists by the grace of international cooperation and academic freedom and independence.”
The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the umbrella organization for the 14 public universities in the Netherlands, told BNR that the Dutch universities currently don’t have a recruitment program set up, but are looking into it. “It seems like a good idea to us,” a spokesperson said, referring to improving Dutch innovation. UNL also said it wants to show solidarity with American scientists.
The UNL spokesperson added that recruiting American scientists will prove difficult in practice because the Dutch government is also cutting billions from higher education budgets. The Dutch government is also vehement about reducing immigration. That includes study and knowledge migrants, with the NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt targeting expats in particular.
The NSC will again push to cut the tax breaks of expats during the negotiations on the Spring Memorandum, the spring update to the national budget, Omtzigt told the media last month. At the end of 2023, Omtzigt pushed a plan through parliament to cut the 30 percent ruling for expats, that time to cover the bill for lowering interest rates on student loans. The move led to outrage in the business community, with companies like ASML threatening to expand outside the Netherlands, and the former Cabinet scrambling to make them stay. Notably, the current Cabinet, which includes the NSC, largely reversed the cut to the 30 percent ruling on Budget Day last year.
