Assault on Science in the United States – The Royal Observatory of Belgium Endorses the ALLEA Statement
Recent restrictions on science and scholarship brought by the new US administration executive orders have prompted the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) to respond with a statement calling for their members, partners and like-minded organisations to take a stand to safeguard academic freedom and the autonomy of scientific institutions. The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) endorses their statement.
The ALLEA, the ROB and the entities that endorse the present statement express grave concern over the threats to academic freedom and international research collaboration, both in the United States and beyond. Many US science agencies and research organisations have to abruptly suspend their normal operations, notably due to executive orders freezing billions of federal research funding and censorship around topics such as climate change and gender. Such restrictions fundamentally compromise the integrity of scientific endeavours not just in the USA, but also around the world due to the international nature of the research ecosystem.
As the ALLEA states, ‘academic freedom is a fundamental pillar of democratic societies and essential for knowledge production and innovation worldwide. The open and collaborative nature of global research strongly depends on the ability of researchers and scientific institutions to operate free from undue political interference.’ The ALLEA and the institutes that endorse its statement are deeply concerned about the far-reaching and devastating consequences that the US administration brought to essential (global) research programmes, particularly in fields like health, climate, gender and the social sciences, but also to the careers of young researchers, to fundamental research and to efforts to secure a ‘healthy, just and safe world for all’.
The ALLEA therefore encourages their members, partners and like-minded organisations and urges national governments and international institutions in the US, Europe and beyond to remain vigilant. All of them should strengthen efforts to safeguard academic freedom and the autonomy of scientific institutions. This can be done by committing to actions and measures already adopted on inter-institutional and supranational levels, such as the European Parliament’s resolution on promotion of the freedom of scientific research in the EU and UNESCO’s Call to Action on the Freedom and Safety of Scientists.
The ALLEA Statement
ALLEA, ALLEA Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States (2025), ALLEA, DOI: 10.26356/ALLEA-ACADEMIC-FREEDOM-STATEMENT. Shared under a CC-BY 4.0 international licence.
Full PDF text of the statement: https://allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ALLEA-Statement-on-Threats-to-Academic-Freedom.pdf
Endorse the ALLEA statement by filling in their Google Form.
Other related science entities also take a stand against the recent attack on academic freedom brought by the new US administration. Read for example the editorial of the journal Nature of 25 February 2025: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00562-w.