US destroying its reputation as a scientific leader – European science diplomat

Global R&D, Brain Drain, and “Outsourcing”

• Several comments reject the idea that other countries “outsourced” R&D to the US; instead, the US aggressively competed with superior funding, salaries, and immigration policies, causing brain drain.
• Others note that this was often experienced as a loss abroad but is now becoming an opportunity as disillusioned US scientists can be “poached” by Europe and elsewhere.
• There’s agreement that science as a global enterprise will be fine without US dominance; the real risk is to the US economy and jobs tied to scientific industries.

US Policy Shifts and Scientific Reputation

• The thread cites: cuts to grants (especially diversity-related), halted biomedical funding to foreign partners, and political interventions into university programs as evidence of reputational damage.
• Some argue these moves, even if later reversed, cause long-lasting harm: projects cancelled, relationships broken, researchers emigrating.
• Others say it’s too early to quantify damage; US still has major technological lead in chips, software, and defense, and a future administration might reverse course.

EU Motives, Horizon Europe, and Diplomacy

• Multiple commenters frame the EU diplomat’s statement as both politically motivated and self-serving: a way to justify funding Horizon Europe and European “reindustrialisation.”
• Horizon Europe itself is criticized as bloated, bureaucratic, and “cosplay” projects with too many mandatory partners and overhead.
• Some see EU rhetoric as part breakup-drama, part genuine alarm: the EU doesn’t actually want the US to collapse, since that would harm both sides.

Funding Levels, Waste, and Politicization

• Linked reporting on falling US grant rates is contrasted with claims that “a lot of people were getting easy money,” which others challenge as vague and uninformed.
• Debate centers on whether there is real “waste,” especially in “diversity-related” research. Critics question its value; defenders note that:
  • “Diversity” labels have been applied even to apolitical areas like biodiversity.
  • Population diversity in biomedical research is necessary for valid results.
• Several comments stress that public basic research has long-term economic payoff and isn’t charity; cuts mainly shift power to privately funded, more biased research.

US Decline, Public Apathy, and Empire Analogies

• Many see this as part of a broader US “decade of humiliation” or imperial decline, comparing it to past British/French/Spanish collapses.
• Others caution that US decline has been predicted for decades and that previous scares (e.g., Japanese tech ascendance) were reversed through coordinated policy.
• A recurring theme is domestic insecurity: when average citizens are struggling and politically polarized, they neither care about nor reliably support long-horizon scientific investment.