EURAXESS’s Jackson Howard talks about the Choose Europe for Science initiative and EURAXESS’s role in promoting collaboration and opportunities for North American researchers seeking to participate in the program.
EURAXESS North America covers Canada and the United States as part of the broader EURAXESS project, a pan-European initiative to promote mobility and career development for researchers. With a mission to strengthen scientific cooperation between Europe and the international community, this initiative supports researchers of all nationalities from around the world who wish to travel to or collaborate with Europe. Regional Coordinator Jackson Howard recently spoke to Innovation Platform about the hub’s work and the European Commission’s unprecedented new campaign for researchers.
“Choose Europe for Science” initiative
In May, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen joined senior officials in the Choosing Europe for Science initiative, launched at the Sorbonne University in Paris. The event brought together French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as key figures in Europe’s research community, university presidents, heads of research institutes, businesses and policy makers from across the continent. The campaign, which aims to strengthen Europe’s attractiveness as a hub for research and innovation, comes at a time when many other talented researchers are feeling reeling from the changing landscape of higher education.
In her speech at the Sorbonne, President von der Leyen cited the inspiring story of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, a two-time Nobel laureate who herself found opportunity by moving to a new country (and indeed its university). At this global moment of changing status quo, Europe presents a cohesive set of opportunities, as evidenced by the complementary offers in the Choose Europe announcement, in which the European Commission and French leaders announced new pan-European and French funding requests, respectively. The point was clear. The European Commission, which runs Horizon Europe, the largest framework program in history for research and innovation, is providing extraordinary funding in extraordinary times to channel talent and attract talent. And France has become an example of how this is not just happening at EU level, but that Member States and Horizon Europe countries are also making their own national proposals.
EURAXESS role: North American hub
Together, countries and the European Commission have actively chosen the EURAXESS platform as the central database in which all these new initiatives and calls will be posted. It is now part of the Jobs and Opportunities section of EURAXESS and is now frequently updated on national and regional initiatives as well as EU-run funding schemes covering all of Europe.
This plan goes beyond a program to attract returning nationals. Perhaps reading the mood in the room, some countries also have programs in place to attract US-based researchers facing career uncertainty, such as Austria’s APART-USA funding program.
In Canada, interest has increased since last year’s association with Horizon Europe’s second pillar, and Canadian-based researchers of all nationalities are deepening their ties with Europe, considering open calls and forming consortia with European and other international PIs. In the United States, there is actually a growing interest in moving to Europe. This is evidenced by recent figures for MSCA postdoctoral fellowships, where applications from Canada increased by 103% year-on-year, while applications from the United States increased by a whopping 185%.
Trends that are gaining attention and interest
As EURAXESS North America, we’ve seen an explosion in FlashNotes subscribers and webinar attendees this year, not to mention the aforementioned statistics, but one question that remained was how this translated into our immediate interest in travel. Having spent the summer and early fall on assignments in Canada and the United States, we can confidently say that this increased attention is not an isolated event and appears to be here to stay.
Just last month, EU Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Jovita Neliupšene, hosted an event celebrating transatlantic research collaborations, which also doubled as the annual meeting of the European Scientific Diaspora in North America. Usually an event primarily attended by academics, I was surprised and moved to see that the attendees included research managers, local researchers wanting to learn about opportunities in Europe, and ambassadors and science diplomats from several European embassies in Washington. Visiting university representatives from six European countries created a truly transatlantic atmosphere for the audience. The level of interest is evidenced by the fact that many attendees were not just from the Washington, D.C., area, but also from Ontario, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and other distant locations. That this has happened during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown supports the idea that interactions are only occurring less frequently at this time, and that any opportunity to bring people together can help foster relationships.
Fostering global connections: uniting communities
The whole EURAXESS project and our annual conference itself are both about bringing people together. So I personally spent most of the event making sure to introduce them to plant the seeds for future collaborations. For example, we ensured that visiting researchers with an interest in Germany had the opportunity to contact the German Academic International Network (GAIN) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). The GAIN representative just came from New York. Current PhD candidates considering postdoctoral positions were introduced to MSCA’s current and former MSCA postdoctoral fellows, as well as the president of the Marie Curie Alumni Association North American Chapter. They likewise came from Chicago just to serve as a bridge for those who want to know more about EU mobility funding.
There are too many examples to list. This high-level event solidified the idea that the Choose Europe campaign is not a one-off, but will continue as a permanent banner showing different ways for researchers to advance their careers, including collaborating with and moving to Europe.
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 24.
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