Norway Seeks to Hire Away U.S. Faculty Amid Trump Tumult

The Research Council of Norway launched a roughly $9.5 million fund Wednesday to help recruit researchers from other countries, The Guardian reported, in what appears to be a trend of other nations seeking to hire U.S. faculty amid the Trump administration’s disruption of higher education.

“It is important for Norway to be proactive in a demanding situation for academic freedom,” said Sigrun Aasland, Norway’s research and higher education minister, according to The Guardian. “We can make a difference for outstanding researchers and important knowledge, and we want to do that as quickly as possible … Academic freedom is under pressure in the U.S., and it is an unpredictable position for many researchers in what has been the world’s leading knowledge nation for many decades.”

A call for proposals in multiple subjects is set to go out next month, the newspaper reported.

Other European nations have made efforts to recruit U.S. researchers, and some U.S. scholars have decamped for Canada of their own accord.