Universities: ‘Do not fill in Trump’s questionnaire’

Researchers in Wageningen received a politically charged questionnaire from the United States Geological Survey. The line of the Trump administration is clearly recognisable. The urgent advice from the universities is not to fill it in.

Does your organisation collaborate with groups affiliated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or with any other party that holds anti-American views? Can you confirm that this is not a climate or environmental law project or that it does not contain such elements? Does this research project take appropriate measures to protect and defend women against gender ideology?

These are three of the 36 questions that two Wageningen researchers found in their inbox at the beginning of March, as reported by the newspaper NRC last week. They are collaborating with the US geological institution USGS on a project that monitors the condition of forests using satellites. The service had sent them the questionnaire on behalf of the US government.

Shiver

“Some of the questions really send a shiver down your spine“, responds one of the two researchers in the university magazine Resource, which published the questionnaire online.

Wageningen warned the other universities. Staff there were also advised not to fill in the questionnaire. The universities association UNL is monitoring the situation but has not yet heard of other researchers receiving the questionnaire. Chairman Caspar van den Berg describes the questionnaire as ‘indicative of the deteriorating climate for free scientific inquiry in the US’.

Language usage

President Trump aims to cut billions in funding for research into areas such as climate, gender, health, and the environment. Research proposals are scrutinised for ‘problematic language’ surrounding diversity, equality, and inclusivity.

In the science programme Focus, KNAW president Marileen Dogterom describes the pace at which science policy is being dismantled in the US as ‘almost incomprehensible‘. Anja Schreijer, medical director of the Dutch Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center, notes that her American colleagues are afraid to speak freely. “They can only do so at the weekend via private phones. They are afraid of losing their jobs or funding.”