As US President Donald Trump freezes billions in funding for top universities until they give in to a list of demands, the European Union (EU) sees a chance to attract the finest scientific minds and scholars to the bloc.

The EU commission and several European universities have announced a slew of programs aimed at offering academic freedom to US researchers if they relocate to Europe, especially those targeted by the Trump administration in the fields of immunology and communicable diseases, climate change and social sciences involving gender studies, diversity and migration.

European academics have said that, as their counterparts in the US faced political interference and job loss, they were compelled to act and offer whatever help they could.

"It is outrageous, unjustified," Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC), the bloc's public body for scientific and technological enquiry, told DW over the phone. "I have many friends and colleagues in the US and it is just shocking to see what's happening there."

Jan Danckaert, Rector, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), described it as "painful."

"Researchers should be protected as much as possible from political influence. But in the US we see precisely the opposite. The government is interfering for political reasons," Danckaert told DW.

VUB has allocated funding and established a contact point for information for........

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