US is ‘demolishing its scientific leadership with a wrecking ball,’ says chief EU research diplomat

In a parting shot before her retirement, the European Commission’s top science diplomat has castigated the US for destroying its reputation as a global scientific leader. 

Signe Ratso, who is in charge of negotiating global access to the EU’s €93.5 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, said on December 17 that the US was “still our most important research partner” but was “currently demolishing its scientific leadership with a wrecking ball.” 

Ratso, who retires as the end of this year, is deputy director general of the Commission’s research and innovation directorate, and has inked deals with South Korea, New Zealand and Canada to join parts of Horizon Europe in a bid to expand the programme’s global reach. 

Speaking at the European Science Diplomacy Conference in Copenhagen, she did not elaborate on exactly how the US was wrecking its reputation.

But since Donald Trump became president this year, the US government has cut scientific grants to academics working on diversity-related topics, halted biomedical grants to international partners, and demanded universities shut down academic units that “belittle” conservative ideas, or risk losing federal funding. 

These efforts have in some cases been overturned by courts or faced opposition from universities. And huge proposed cuts in federal research funding may be blunted by Congress. But still, the reputational damage has led Europe to attempt a poaching spree of disillusioned US academics. 

Ratso said that, with the US trashing its reputation, “Europe has had to learn the very hard way that we need to defend our strategic interests and our values ourselves, starting with freedom and freedom of scientific research.” 

The “good news” is that “we are not alone in this point,” she said. There are “very many like-minded parties around the world supporting us.” 

As well as associating South Korea, New Zealand and Canada to Horizon Europe, Singapore, Australia and Japan are also at the negotiating table to join. Ratso also presided over the association of Egypt, despite human rights and academic freedom concerns. Meanwhile, the UK and Switzerland are also back in the programme after wider political wrangles delayed their association. 

Global expansion

Under Ratso’s tenure, Horizon Europe has grown from a primarily European programme to one that spans the globe. “I'm really proud that we managed to do that,” she told the conference. 

However, these non-European partners are only associated to the part of Horizon Europe that dishes out collaborative grants to consortia of academics. They are not part of the European Research Council. It will also likely take time before countries such as South Korea and Canada manage to learn the complex procedures of the programme and fully integrate. 

Under plans for Horizon Europe’s successor, the proportion of the budget dedicated to this part of the programme will fall to less than half. 

The next programme, which starts in 2028, will also be more focused on European defence technology and industrial strength, raising questions over how welcome non-European partners will be, particularly in sensitive projects. 

Ratso herself has raised concerns that allowing dual use research, which can be used for civilian and military purposes, could lock out associated countries. 

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Her comments come as Europe more broadly reconsiders its relationship with the US. European governments have been shaken in recent weeks by a new US national security strategy that said Washington should prioritise “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations,” widely interpreted as suggesting support for far-right anti-migration parties. 

The strategy, however, does not paint Europe as weak, but rather lacking in self-confidence. “European allies enjoy a significant hard power advantage over Russia by almost every measure, save nuclear weapons,” it says. 

“European sectors from manufacturing to technology to energy remain among the world’s most robust,” the strategy says. “Europe is home to cutting-edge scientific research and world-leading cultural institutions.”