James Paul 
In just a few weeks, Donald Trump’s government sparked a wave of disturbances in American scientific institutions, causing a shock wave felt far beyond national borders. While dismissals, contradictions and hostile rhetoric are multiplying, the scientific community seeks to preserve its integrity in the face of what appears as a real assault against its fundamental values.
These values; Empirical evidence, intellectual independence, methodological rigor and inclusion; Researchers want to defend them at all costs. The response is organized, and these are not isolated actions, but the‘Set of scientific actors in the country.
The impact of executive decrees on scientific activity
In the field of research across the Atlantic, Several organizations occupy a strategic positionas with us in France. The American Association for the Advance of Sciences (AAAS), editor of the prestigious review Sciencethe national academies of science, engineering and medicine, as well as the Association of American Faculties of Medicine (AAMC) are the institutional voice of their respective members.
At the same time, university groups such as the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public Universities, and the American Education Council defend the interests of higher education establishments engaged in research. The decor is now posed.
These entities, subject to specific constraints linked to their methods of financing and their representative mandates, adjust their positions and interventions According to variable temporalities, dependent on budgetary cycles.
The exceptional severity of the current situation has pushed certain universities and associations to start legal proceedings against the federal government to block executive decrees prejudicial to scientific activity. Behind the scenes, most of them carry out discreet diplomatic and strategic actions with political decision -makers in Washington DC. An institutional lobbying work and political negotiation which takes place out of the public gaze.
In this case, these efforts are specifically aimed at mitigating The impact of controversial decisions of the Trump administration On the American scientific ecosystem, by mobilizing networks of institutional influence to protect the financing, independence and integrity of national scientific research.
The Director General of AAAS, Sudip Parikh, firmly opposed the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ; anti-vaccini activist with which is difficult to defend; To the post of Secretary of Health and Social Services (HHS).
AAMC denounced the layoffs that occurred within the HHS, while the AAU has challenged the arbitrary reductions in indirect costs in the subsidies of the National Health Institutes (NIH). Presidents of universities, including in republican states, have alerted to Disastrous consequences for public health that will lead the budget cuts of the NIH. The agency has decided to cap the ” indirect costs At 15 %, which means that it will finance these costs less for research institutions. A measure obviously praised by a certain Elon Musk.
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The role of universities in the defense of science
The response of university leaders, often deemed too measured by certain members of the teaching staff, is intended to be effective in the long term. A frontal posture of resistance appears to be not very possible Given the magnitude of the responsibilities incumbent on the leaders of scientific institutions. The latter therefore carefully assess the optimal time to intervene, aware of their obligations to the resources they administer and the people they direct.
Ellen Granberg, president of George Washington University, describes the current situation ” tragedy risking destroying a scientific business that makes the world, which has saved countless lives and produces innovations fueling our economy ». However, she added that ” While following legal procedures carefully and ultimately respecting the law, we will do everything possible to preserve the principles that we have always followed and protect the members of our community ».
In this very tense environment, researchers enjoying statutory protection reinforced by the first amendment of the American Constitution are found with immense responsibility on the shoulders. These constitutional guarantees, which sanctuize academic freedom against direct political pressures, confer on university university a considerably more extensive latitude of action and expression that the one available to administrative officials of their establishments.
This is why the modalities of different engagement. Holder teachers can trigger A larger repertoire of protest actions : Critical publications in leading scientific journals, media stands denounced attacks on scientific integrity, testimonies before parliamentary commissions, or active participation in citizen defense movements.
University leaders, faced with binding institutional imperatives, must develop another dialectical posture. Faced with the imperative of institutional preservation on the one hand, and their vocation to protect intellectual freedoms on the other hand, they develop what one could call a Double level academic diplomacy. Their public interventions must be calibrated without compromising the sustainability of their institutions, while creating THE conditions of an intellectual dissent protected within them.
This dialectic can manifest itself through several institutional devices : the establishment of robust legal protocols protecting researchers who denounce political interference in the scientific process; the allocation of internal financial resources to research programs methodically evaluating the impact of contested policies; Or the development of transnational academic networks allowing the pursuit of scientific work in spaces partially removed from national political pressures.
The objective: simultaneously maintain an institutional facade capable of negotiating with political powers, while developing protected spaces where a rigorous scientific criticism of government decisions can flourish. Assumed ambivalence, which makes all the strength of the university system Faced with attempts at political instrumentalization of knowledge.
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Resistance by excellence and integrity
Scientific journals, essential pillars of the dissemination of knowledge, reaffirm their commitment to the most demanding standards of scientific integrity. The big family Science has undertaken to continue to publish innovative research and critical analyzes, without compromise on fundamental principles which govern the evaluation by peers. It therefore becomes almost a guardian of a space for the circulation of scientific ideas, partially withdrawn from national political contingencies and attempted instrumentalization.
This position, shared by other major publications such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Public Library of Scienceaims to preserve the independence of international scientific research. An essential act of resistance for researchers outside the United States to see their research programs or methodologies affected by American political decisions.
The coming weeks probably represent The most difficult test that the American scientific community has ever faced. In any case, she will have to continue to thrive in this new era, in which the Trumpian government apparatus Already started a deep undermining work. The traditional model of political neutrality of science, today reveals its limits in the face of an executive power which precisely instrumentalizes this neutrality to dismantle the institutional protections of scientific knowledge. Will history severely judge this period when one of the largest world scientific powers will have deliberately scuttled the very foundations of his intellectual pre -eminence In the name of short-term economic interests and a methodically cultivated anti-intellectual populism? Certain historical facts have proven us that an institutional and intellectual erosion can put decades to be correctedthe question therefore arises sincerely.
- The recent decisions of the United States government have weakened scientific institutions, resulting in dismissals and budgetary restrictions that worry the research community.
- Universities, associations and researchers organize themselves to preserve scientific independence, combining legal actions, lobbying and critical publications in the face of political pressures.
- The questioning of research and autonomy of research could permanently weaken the scientific influence of the United States, with an impact on innovation and international cooperation.
