Since Donald Trump took office as president of the United States, he has undermined academic freedom in various ways. There is even a list of forbidden words such as diversity and gender that researchers are no longer allowed to use if they wish to be eligible for government funding.
Data and software no longer available
The new approach is also being felt in the Netherlands, as indicated by a survey among more than two hundred researchers from twelve different universities. We spoke further with over forty of them.
One third of all respondents say they are noticing the effects. Collaborations with American researchers are being halted and conferences are being cancelled, they report, or they see research funding disappearing.
Seventeen researchers say that certain ‘datasets and/or software’ have become unavailable since the interventions at American research institutions. They mention, for example, two significant American programmes in the fields of climate and health sciences.
An institute that has been collecting international health data for decades (DHS) is ‘currently paused’. Several climate datasets from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are also being rendered unusable.
Reaction
The universities haven’t provided a joint response to the developments yet. Some are organising a meeting (Leiden) or establishing a support centre (Rotterdam, Groningen), but mostly they are directing researchers to their supervisors, existing offices, and a few general guidelines on the website.
The question is whether the American situation will spill over to the Netherlands. Most respondents do not believe that the academic climate here will change, or ‘not yet’, as one of them indicates. However, one in three respondents thinks it will.
This journalistic investigation arises from a collaborative project by Investico, NU.nl, and the Higher Education Press Agency. To map out the consequences of American science policy on Dutch scientists, a questionnaire was distributed. More than two hundred researchers from twelve Dutch universities participated. The authors spoke with forty of them in more depth. Articles based on this research will be published by NU.nl, De Groene Amsterdammer, Erasmus Magazine, and other higher education media.
