EURAXESS’s Jackson Howard discusses the Choose Europe for Science initiative, and the role of EURAXESS in facilitating collaboration and opportunities for researchers in North America seeking to connect with the programme.
EURAXESS North America covers Canada and the United States as part of the wider EURAXESS project, a pan-European initiative to foster researchers’ mobility and career development. With a mandate to strengthen scientific collaboration between Europe and the global community, the initiative supports researchers of all nationalities worldwide who want to go to or collaborate with Europe. Regional Coordinator Jackson Howard recently shared with The Innovation Platform about his hub’s work as well as the European Commission’s new, unprecedented campaign for researchers.
The Choose Europe for Science initiative
This May, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen joined high-ranking officials at the ‘Choose Europe for Science’ initiative launched at Sorbonne University in Paris. Alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, the event brought together leading figures in European research, university presidents, heads of research institutes, businesses, and policymakers from across the continent. Aimed at strengthening Europe’s appeal as a hub for research and innovation, the campaign came at a moment when many talented researchers elsewhere are feeling upended by the shifting landscape in higher education.
In her remarks at La Sorbonne, President von der Leyen invoked the moving story of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska-Curie, who herself found opportunities by moving to a new country (and in fact, that very university). At this global moment where the status quo is changing, Europe presents a cohesive suite of opportunities, as evidenced by the complementary offers in the Choose Europe announcement, where the heads of the European Commission and France presented their new pan-Europe and French funding calls, respectively. The takeaway was clear: the European Commission, which runs Horizon Europe, the largest-ever framework programme for research and innovation, is putting its money where its mouth is and offering exceptional funding during extraordinary times to attract talent. And France served as an example of how this is not just happening at the EU level, but that the Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries are also presenting their own national offerings.
The role of EURAXESS: A hub for North America
Done in coordination, the countries and the Commission proactively chose the EURAXESS platform as the centralised database where all of these new initiatives and calls would be posted. Baked right into the EURAXESS Jobs and Opportunities section, it now frequently updates with not just EU-run funding schemes for all of Europe but also national and regional initiatives.
The schemes go beyond programmes to attract returning citizens; perhaps reading the room, some countries have also created schemes attracting researchers based in the United States who are facing uncertainty in their careers, such as Austria’s APART-USA funding programme.
In Canada, the growing interest comes from the country’s association with Horizon Europe’s Pillar 2 last year, so researchers of all nationalities based there are deepening their ties with Europe as they consider open calls with European and other international PIs and forming consortia. In the United States, there is much more interest in actually moving to Europe. This is evidenced by recent figures for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, where applications from Canada increased 103% over the previous year, but those from the US increased a massive 185%.
A growing trend of attention and interest
As EURAXESS North America, we’ve seen explosive growth in our flashnote subscribers and webinar attendees this year, not to mention the aforementioned statistics, but one question that remained was how this would translate to in-person interest in our travels. Having carried out missions in Canada and the US over the summer and early autumn, we can confidently say this growing attention is not an isolated incident but appears here to stay.
Just last month, the EU Ambassador to the US, Her Excellency Jovita Neliupšienė, hosted an event celebrating transatlantic research collaboration ties that also served as our Annual Meeting of the European Scientific Diasporas in North America. Typically, an event with turnout largely from academics, we were stunned and touched to see the attendees include research administrators, local researchers wanting to learn about opportunities in Europe, ambassadors and science diplomats from several European embassies in Washington, and more. Visiting university representatives from six European countries made the audience truly transatlantic, and the deep interest is evidenced by the fact that many attendees did not simply join from the immediate Washington, DC area but travelled from Ontario, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and other great distances just to connect. That this happened during the ongoing US Government shutdown underscores the idea that right now, dialogue is simply happening at a lower rate, and any and all opportunities to bring people together will help foster relationships.
Fostering global connection: Bringing the community together
The entire EURAXESS project and our annual meeting itself are both about connecting people, so I personally spent most of the event making sure I made introductions to plant seeds of future collaboration; for example, I made sure visiting scholars with an interest in Germany had the opportunity to connect with the German Academic International Network (GAIN), whose representative came down from New York just to be available, and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Current PhDs who are considering a postdoc were introduced to current and former MSCA Postdoctoral Fellows, as well as the Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association – North America Chapter, who similarly travelled from Chicago just to act as a bridge to those who want to learn more about the EU’s funding for mobility.
The examples go on and on, and the high-level event solidified to me the idea that the Choose Europe campaign is not a flash in the pan but will continue as an enduring banner of the many ways by which researchers can enhance their careers, whether by collaborating with Europe or making the move there.
Please note, this article will also appear in the 24th edition of our quarterly publication.
