How Trump's attack on science also affects Dutch researchers

A survey of Dutch academics conducted by HOP, Nu.nl, Investico and De Groene Amsterdammer shows that Donald Trump's anti-science agenda has serious consequences for Dutch researchers, but not all universities are fully aware of this. Article written by Bas Belleman (HOP), Emma van Bergeijk (NU.nl), Bijou van der Borst, Machteld Veen, and Emiel Woutersen (De Groene Amsterdammer/Investico).

Lex Burdorf, a professor of ‘Determinants of Public Health’ at Erasmus University Rotterdam, wrote an article alongside several colleagues about the consequences of climate change for the health of construction workers. It was supposed to be published in a scientific journal in the United States, but the journal rejected it at the last minute, citing ‘specific circumstances’ without elaborating further. ‘We strongly suspect that it's because Donald Trump doesn't want any more research into climate change to be done,’ he says. Meanwhile, the journal appears to have been shut down.

Donald Trump has only been the president of the United States for a few months, but the consequences of his second term are visible everywhere in academia. Trump is cutting science funding, torpedoing climate research, banning words such as ‘diversity’ and ‘gender’, and deporting international students and researchers he doesn't like. It is a full frontal attack on academic freedom.

In Burdorf's field, the new administration is leading to self-censorship. ‘I'm involved in research into health-related differences between men and women, but you can't say that in the US anymore. They talk about “targeted medicine” or “personalised medicine”. That's what's happening. It's very bizarre, isn't it?’

'I don't feel at home in a country where such bizarre things happen'

He is now watching what he says in his emails to scientists working at American universities. After all, you never know where those emails might end up. Hundreds of scientists are losing their jobs, and he doesn't want to get his peers into trouble.

He is also turning away from the US. ‘We are less inclined to invite Americans to participate in new research projects because that could cause problems,’ says Burdorf. ‘What's more, I have decided not to go to the United States for at least the next two years. I don't think I feel at home in a country where such bizarre things are happening.’

Thirty percent of Dutch scientists are facing the consequences of Trump's policies
This is but one example of how the new course of the American government is also being felt in the Netherlands. But there is more. Dutch researchers are also losing American research funding or seeing years of collaboration go down the drain. Data is at risk of disappearing or is already inaccessible. Conferences have been postponed or cancelled.

Together with NU.nl and the Investico platform, the Higher Education Press Agency (HOP) distributed a survey this spring, which was completed by more than 200 researchers from 12 universities. Thirty percent of respondents say they are feeling the consequences of Trump's policies directly.

In addition to frequently mentioned fields such as Climate Science and Gender Studies, the survey shows that History, Political Science, Palaeontology and even Computer Science are being affected. In some cases, researchers are feeling the pinch financially: 22 respondents have seen promised funds be interrupted or withdrawn, such as those that had secured funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

After the survey, HOP, NU.nl and Investico talked to more than forty researchers, who told them how the policy is affecting them and how they feel uncertain about the future. Will they be able to travel to the US? Who can they turn to for advice if they lose their funding or data?

'People have told me: "Don't even try going to the US."'

Manon Portos Minetti (pronouns: they/them), a Historian and television producer, is horrified at what is going on in the US. Portos Minetti is conducting PhD research in Leiden on the white, right-wing, evangelical media landscape in the US, also known as ‘televangelism’. The study analyses how conspiracy theories in that circle contributed to the re-election of Donald Trump and the ideal of a ‘pure’ white America.

Portos Minetti would like to do archival research and spend some time in the US as a visiting scholar. ‘But given my subject matter, people have told me not to even try. Trump only wants you to highlight the positive side of American history, while I'm doing the opposite.’

This affects them not only professionally, but also personally: as a ‘queer person of colour’ with a Uruguayan background, Portos Minetti does not feel safe in the United States. They do not even know if they would be allowed to enter the country, so they are not going to try.

Travelling to the US would go against their principles right now. Sometimes researchers grumble about cancelled conferences and trips that don't go ahead. ‘Maybe I'm simplifying things, but I sometimes think: "Would you have gone to Nazi Germany in 1939?"'

’Empowered people are not Trump's friends'

Gender, racism, climate change, diversity... Research into such topics is an obvious target for Donald Trump's regime. But even seemingly neutral disciplines such as Astronomy are feeling the shockwaves. 

‘It's a tragedy,’ says Simon Portegies Zwart, a professor of Astronomy in Leiden. ’I've been in Zoom calls with American peers every day, but they don't even dare to talk about it because they fear reprisals. You never know who's listening. They're going from a reasonably functioning democracy to the China of the 1970s.’

He says diversity policy is in danger of being wiped out at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He also mentions the budget cuts announced by the Trump administration: ‘If they go ahead, NASA will be almost abolished.’ Planned satellites are being cancelled, and an important telescope is at risk. Portegies Zwart: ‘This is so short-sighted. Elon Musk's space programme originated from publicly funded space research, and now they're cutting funds for it.'

‘Politics is hostile to science right now’

NASA-related departments for atmospheric and oceanic science cover climate change, so one might understand why Trump is targeting them, but few people can fathom why astronomy and space travel are being targeted as well. Portegies Zwart: ‘The only thing I can think of is that science produces articulate people who think about the world. They are not Trump's friends. This seems to be mainly motivated by resentment.’

Portegies Zwart perceives the same sentiment in the Netherlands and believes that the budget cuts hitting higher education and research are a sign of that. ‘The political direction is hostile to science right now,’ he says. ‘I don't understand how this happened: the people in those parties are usually highly educated, but somehow they have developed a certain resistance to nuance and facts.’

Academic climate in the Netherlands
Portegies Zwart is not alone. The survey asked respondents the following question: budget cuts aside, do you have the impression that the academic climate is changing in the Netherlands? Most scientists consulted by HOP, NU.nl and Ingenico say they don't (or at least ‘not yet'), but 76 of the more than 200 survey respondents said they do. They note that things are less extreme here, but that doesn't mean the climate isn't changing.

Most respondents have little confidence in the government. We asked them what they expect from the Dutch Minister of Education, Eppo Bruins. ‘Absolutely nothing,’ replied one of them. ‘I expect him to resign,’ suggested others. But most were more serious, saying they would like to see the minister stand up for science and speak out against what is happening in the US.

But the cabinet prefers to avoid antagonising the United States. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof recently advised against a proposal (made by the opposition) to set up a fund to bring top scientists from the US to the Netherlands. The minister welcomes such a fund, as long as it is not specifically targeted at the US. After that, the minister went on to set up a more neutral fund, with 25 million euros to help bring ‘threatened’ researchers here. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has not received any additional funding for this.

Europe is taking action
Other European countries seem to be more proactive. Thirteen European ministers of education and science (including those from France and Germany) have recently sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva. Although they do not mention the US, they call for the protection of scientific freedom, saying that the European Union should welcome talented researchers from abroad who are suffering from political interference and brutal budget cuts.

The letter fell on fertile ground at the European Commission. President Ursula von der Leyen has since announced half a billion euros in additional investments to attract scientists to Europe. She also wants to enshrine academic freedom in European legislation.

Minister Bruins did not sign the letter ‘because it contains several proposals that go beyond the minister's portfolio, such as an immigration framework and reprioritisation of resources within the EU budget,' his spokesperson says, emphasising that Bruins endorses the importance of academic freedom and attracting talented academics. 

What now?
The conversations carried out by HOP, NU.nl and Ingenico reveal that researchers are often unsure who to turn to when they need advice about matters like travelling abroad, losing funding or securing data.

Most universities only provide general advice. For example, they urge their staff not to fill in any questionnaires about their research coming from the US. Two researchers from Wageningen University recently received a questionnaire by email, which caused quite a stir. 

‘These events are worrisome and happening very quickly’

Researchers can also turn to policy advisors, managers, and knowledge security specialists, among others. In Rotterdam, there is a special contact person for students and researchers looking to travel to the US, while Groningen is working on a general reporting centre. 

However, HOP's inquiries at universities reveal that they are not always aware of the problems their employees are facing. ‘These events are worrisome and happening very quickly,’ says a spokesperson for the University of Amsterdam. ‘The impact is broad, but we do not have the final, full scope of it yet.’

Maastricht University even believes that it is not experiencing any ‘direct consequences.’ Nevertheless, three scientists from that university stated in the survey that funding has been withdrawn from their studies, American peers are no longer allowed to participate in their research, and access to some scientific information is disappearing.

‘The impact is limited at this point,’ Tilburg University also believes. “Some scientists have questions, and they can turn to their managers for answers. We want to keep things calm.” As for the possible disappearance of datasets from American applications, 'this could happen in theory, but we have no reason to believe it will happen. We always ask scientists to store their data safely and securely.’

Save as...
However, it is not easy to store data securely yourself, says astronomer Portegies Zwart. ‘I'm concerned about American databases that have no copies anywhere else in the world. These are large files; you can't just buy a 10-terabyte hard drive and download them in an evening. You might need an entire data centre. What's more, much of that data is updated every day, so would we have to make new copies every day?’

The danger is real. At the end of April, physical oceanographer Sjoerd Groeskamp, from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), received a disturbing email from the American ocean research centre, NOAA. Someone warned that a significant number of databases were going to be taken out of service. ‘My time at NOAA is up,’ the email said, ‘and so I want to encourage my peers around the world to save this data for the future.’ Groeskamp would like to store the data, but he feels like he is shouting in the wilderness because there is no coordination to do it.

Securing data
But that doesn't mean nothing is happening in this regard. Surf, the ICT organisation for education and research, is busy securing all databases. So far, 100 terabytes of data have been retrieved.

It may sound old-fashioned, but the data is stored on tapes. The idea is to store them on shelves without cooling, which saves a lot of energy. Since Trump's inauguration, the tapes have been running nonstop.

The nature of the data is confidential. ‘We don't want to give Trump any ideas,’ says innovation manager Magchiel Bijsterbosch. ‘If he knows what we're storing, he might delete it even faster.’

Surf feels the urgency: usually, a request for data storage can be approved in 24 hours, but Bijsterbosch is not the one who decides which data scientists will keep. ‘I'm just ready to do what's necessary.’ He has not received a request for NOAA's ocean data, for example.

Coordination
When asked, Marileen Dogterom, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), suggests that European countries should coordinate. ‘Otherwise, we'll end up with lots of identical copies and forget things. That said, coordination is easier said than done; it has to be done per discipline.’

We talk to Dogterom to get a glimpse of the future. After all, KNAW is known as the guardian and voice of academia. How does she evaluate recent events in the US, and can we say something similar is about to happen in the Netherlands?

‘These events are very damaging to American science and, therefore, to our science,’ says Dogterom. ’We are closely intertwined and have been working together for decades. I worked in the US for five years myself. American science is at the top in many fields. European science is also top-notch, no doubt about it, but when we work together, we all get further.’

When asked what needs to happen, she says that European data storage is a start, but it has yet to get off the ground. ‘We need to become less dependent on the US. We can do that, but it is a second choice, obviously. Everyone loses when you stop cooperating, just like in that trade war.’

Other than that, she says that researchers in the Netherlands can do little more than offer moral support to their counterparts in the US. ‘All we can do is encourage them to resist.’ She is pleased that Harvard, for example, is taking a stand, but she is also concerned about the less wealthy universities scattered throughout the country that provide the lion's share of education: ’They cannot afford to lose as much money as Harvard.’

‘This goes to show how quickly academic freedom can slide'

But Dogterom is not yet afraid that the American situation will quickly spread to the Netherlands, if only because no single party has absolute power here: the Netherlands is a coalition country. Nevertheless, Dogterom criticises the cabinet. ‘The minister does defend academic freedom, but so far it has only been lip service. In practice, they are cutting back on independent research. The systematic screening of scientists for knowledge security and the idea of determining the language in which education may be provided do not contribute to academic freedom in the Netherlands either.’

The attack on science in the United States is a frightening prospect, of course. Dogterom: ‘The events in America show how quickly academic freedom can slide. That is something we want to guard against: we should make sure something like that does not happen in the Netherlands, not even to a small extent .’

Recetly, DUB published an article in which three Utrecht-based professors researching energy and climate talk about what is going on in the US. They fear for their research because American data is becoming less accessible and collaborations, less frequent.