Why Choose Europe will fail, and how we could make it better

Published in Le Monde, on May, 15, 2025
 

Today, more than 100,000 Europeans with PhDs are working in the United States. Recognizing this, governments and universities across Europe are scrambling to announce programs to attract US-based researchers. Yet, for those familiar with American universities, these efforts range between meek and timid.

On Monday 12, May, the President of the European Commission, announced a €500 million two-year effort to attract global researchers. So, let’s put this number into context. In the United States, many universities operate with an endowment model. You can think of this as a big “savings account” that pays 4% a year. Universities can spend that 4% in their operations while the savings account continues to grow.

So, we can contextualize the Choose Europe program by looking at an American University with an endowment that pays about €250 million a year. So does Choose Europe...

Read the full Op-Ed piece on Le Monde's website.