Choose Europe for Science — €500M launched May 2025, expanded to ~€900M; recruiting US researchers

The European Commission's "Choose Europe for Science" program was launched by President von der Leyen at La Sorbonne on May 5, 2025 with an initial €500 million package for 2025-2027. As confirmed by EC reporting on January 30, 2026, the package has since been expanded through over 100 national and regional initiatives to approximately €900 million, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions "Choose Europe" pilot and new seven-year ERC super-grants. The program is explicitly framed around recruiting against United States institutions on research-freedom and infrastructure commitments.

For C-0026 (faculty flight and failed recruiting): the European Commission's response to the 2025 U.S. funding disruptions is a financially substantial, sustained recruiting effort directed at U.S.-based researchers. Combined with E-0047 (75% of U.S. scientists in the Nature poll considering leaving), the evidence shows that the failed-recruiting and faculty-flight risks are not abstract: there is a counterparty actively building the infrastructure to absorb departing U.S. faculty, with budgets that have grown by ~80% from the May 2025 launch through the January 2026 expansion.