ENSA Normandie supports the "Stand Up for Science" movement
On Friday March 14, the ENSA Normandie Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the "Stand Up for Science" movement.
In the United States, for the past six weeks, President Trump and the DOGE have been multiplying their offensives against universities and the world of research. Massive layoffs - nearly 10,000 jobs eliminated or in the process of being eliminated - budget cuts, threats and acts of ideological censorship are multiplying.
Like many scientists and learned societies, ENSA Normandie, a public institution of higher education and research, supports this movement in order to "defend the sciences and humanities, academic freedom and the University as pillars of a democratic society.
*https://standupforscience.fr/322-2/
Published March 18, 2025
Other examples of the Trump offensive**
- the budget of the National Science Foundation, the main funder of projects carried out by public universities, will be cut by almost 70%.
- the National Science Foundation (NSF), the main funder of basic research, would no longer fund projects whose descriptions included the following terms: "disability", "activism", "diversity", "equity", "ethnicity", "woman", etc.
- more than 8,000 public Internet pages have been deleted by the administration, removing all references to what President Trump describes as "gender ideology". Among them were web pages containing information on HIV, articles categorized as "chronic disease prevention", or on vaccines for pregnant women
- researchers at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the agency responsible for disease prevention and control, have been forbidden to use the words: "gender", "transgender", "pregnant person", "LGBT", "transsexual", etc.
- federal agency researchers are forbidden to publish or communicate with foreign colleagues
Science" magazine describes a veritable "decimation" of federal scientific agencies.
In the face of these "obscurantist" attacks on science and research, researchers around the world are mobilizing as part of the "Stand Up For Science" movement, inspired by the 2017 March for Science during Donald Trump's first term in office. This initiative highlights the challenges facing science and reminds us of the importance of scientific facts, particularly for health, understanding social inequalities, climate challenges, biodiversity and the importance of defending free and innovative research. On March 7, 2025, demonstrations in solidarity with US scientists took place in some twenty French cities.
**Le Monde of 02/23/25, 03/01/25, 03/07/25