The Royal Astronomical Society has endorsed a statement highlighting "grave" concerns about threats to academic freedom and international research collaboration in the United States.
It follows recent restrictions on science and scholarship by the U.S. government, such as freezing billions in federal research funding and censoring research on topics such as climate change and gender.
The statement was issued by ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, which represents more than 50 academies from around 40 EU and non-EU countries.
"Such censorship and political suppression of language, research topics, and methodologies – whether through funding restrictions, legislative control, or institutional interference – fundamentally compromise the integrity of scientific and scholarly endeavours not just in the U.S. but around the world due to the global nature of the research ecosystem," it said.
"ALLEA is deeply concerned that the actions of the U.S. administration could have far-reaching and devastating consequences for essential (global) research programmes, particularly in fields such as health, climate, gender, and the social sciences.
"These new restrictions also threaten the careers of the younger generation of scholars, engineers, and health professionals, and may cause lasting harm to the fundamental research that underpins most scientific breakthroughs, as well as efforts to secure a healthy, just, and safe world for all."
More than 150 institutions and scientific organisations, including the RAS, have signed the declaration.
RAS President Professor Mike Lockwood said: "We have three big concerns: chiefly, the impact these myopic decisions will have on the careers of astronomers and geophysicists – including many RAS Fellows – either via the loss of their jobs or the removal of the funding needed to conduct their research.
"Secondly, the targeting of certain research areas for political reasons is an attack on freedom of speech and akin to censorship of the most destructive kind.
"And finally, our longest-lasting concern is the damage this will do to future generations, because much of the work being lost to these cuts is the cutting-edge 'blue-skies' science which creates wealth in a modern society."
To read the ALLEA statement in full and see the list of signatories, visit: https://allea.org/portfolio-item/allea-statement-on-threats-to-academic…
ENDS
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The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science.
The RAS organises scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognises outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 4,000 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.
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