Urgent appeal: PAUSE calls for solidarity

Since 2017, the PAUSE programme, led by the Collège de France, has provided a refuge for scientists and artists forced into exile.
Poets, biologists, psychiatrists, filmmakers, mathematicians, architects, cancer researchers... These women and men, coming from war zones or regions under repression (Ukraine, Afghanistan, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Congo...), continue their work within our universities and cultural institutions. Their presence is an invaluable enrichment to our intellectual, scientific, and democratic life.

Today, our mission is under threat.

Confronted to an unprecedented influx of applications — over 100 new requests this fall alone, often for people whose lives are at risk — the programme has funding to support only about fifteen of them. The exceptional funding promised by the State has still not been released and may be frozen. Without immediate financial support, PAUSE will be forced to turn away brilliant candidates who are ready to be welcomed into our institutions.

What is at stake is not just humanitarian aid: we risk suspending a public policy of general interest, a strong commitment to academic freedom, independent creation, and the safeguarding of endangered knowledge.

We are issuing an urgent call for support.

PAUSE must raise €3 million by November 15 to meet these unprecedented needs.

Without this support, artists and scientists whose lives are in danger will not be able to find refuge.

The situation in Gaza illustrates this urgency: 25 PAUSE fellows and their families remain trapped, despite everything being in place to welcome them to France. The suspension of evacuations is keeping them in conditions of extreme survival. The death of the architect Ahmed Shamia last May is a tragic reminder of the cost of this prolonged waiting.

PAUSE needs your support—now.
There is an urgent need to secure the means to continue our mission. Donating to PAUSE means enabling exiled researchers and artists to keep contributing to our intellectual, scientific, and cultural life.
It means acting for the future, for France’s attractiveness, and for its ability to remain a land of refuge and excellence.