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Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

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280 points dargscisyhp | 1 comments | 02 Aug 25 06:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.245s | source
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fxtentacle ◴[02 Aug 25 09:40 UTC] No.44766082[source]▶
3 months ago, we were all wondering why the EU proudly launched their "Choose EU for Science" campaign, despite having much lower funding levels than in the US.

If they predicted this, then their actions would make a lot of sense. It is notoriously difficult for scientists to change careers after years in research. For people cut off from US funding like this, a EU-guaranteed middle-class income will appear much more attractive than hoping for this newly unpredictable US situation to turn out well.

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1. jltsiren ◴[02 Aug 25 09:59 UTC] No.44766211[source]▶
As a fraction of GDP, the EU spends more on academic research than the US. And if you add the UK, the total is also higher in absolute terms. (The US spends more on R&D, but that's mostly business spending.)

From an individual perspective, the funding situation is (used to be?) better in the US than in Europe. Mostly because there is less competition, as the salary gap between the academia and the industry is wider in the US. Americans are less likely to do a PhD and pursue a career in the academia than Europeans.