Society adds voice to statement on academic freedom in the US

Alarm at how proposed US government rules could restrict international research collaboration has prompted a strong response from ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities.

The statement, which we have signed, condemns the proposals from the United States Office of Management and Budget that fundamentally changes the federal grant system.

These changes would introduce restrictions on collaboration with broadly defined “foreign entities”, while expanding political oversight of research partnerships and funding decisions.

As ALLEA’s statement says, researchers ‘must be able to choose collaborators solely on the basis of the added value of their scientific contribution’. We, like the other signatories, believe the proposals would mark an unacceptable restriction of academic freedom, and the essential need for ideas to cross borders without limitation or in service of partisan politics.

ALLEA submitted the statement as part of the public consultation which ran until 13 July 2026.