Nearly 300 apply as French university offers US academics ‘scientific asylum’

Aix-Marseille University generates interest amid a US crackdown and calls for a scientific refugee' status

Nearly 300 academics have applied to a French university's offer to take in US-based researchers rattled by the American government's crackdown on academia, as a former French president called for the creation of a scientific refugee" status for academics in peril.

Earlier this year, France's Aix-Marseille University was among the first in Europe to respond to the funding freezes, cuts and executive orders unleashed on institutions across the US by Donald Trump's administration.