Six Weeks In, Macron's Call For Climate Scientists Nets Flood Of Applicants For Research Program
Hundreds of climate scientists, including many from the United States, have applied to work in France under a €60-million (US$69-million) scheme set up by the country's president, Emmanuel Macron, after his US counterpart Donald Trump rejected the Paris accord on global warming. And Germany has announced that it will set up a similar programme to lure researchers.
Macron launched his ‘Make Our Planet Great Again’ initiative on 8 June, seeking to entice researchers in other countries to France with offers of 4-year grants worth up to €1.5 million. Six weeks on, the programme has been flooded with applicants, says Anne Peyroche, a biologist and the chief research officer of the CNRS, France’s national basic-research agency.
"Applications continue to come in every hour," she says. Most applied for relatively short sabbaticals in France, but the 154 scientists attracted by longer-term stays of four years or more are of most interest to the initiative's organizers, Peyroche says. France is also headhunting some top climate scientists individually, she adds. The scheme will shortlist as many as 80 scientists by mid-September, with 50 or so winners to be announced around the end of November.
One applicant is Ashley Ballantyne, a bioclimatologist at the University of Montana in Missoula. His proposal involves laying the foundation for a global integrated carbon-observing network, combining satellite and atmospheric data to seek insights into how ecosystems respond to climate change. "There are very few funding opportunities in the United States that promote research on carbon–climate interactions at the global scale, so the fact this programme was looking for visionary thinking was appealing," he says.
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http://www.nature.com/news/climate-scientists-flock-to-france-s-call-1.22318