Trump's attack on science: University of Bremen rescues US databases
Research institutions from Bremen and Bremerhaven have started to secure scientific databases from the USA. The content is to be made available.
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Following "urgent calls for help" from the USA, the University of Bremen and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have begun to secure scientific data sets from there. The two research institutions from Bremen and Bremerhaven announced this and added that the long-term goal is to make the data publicly available. However, this would take some time. The project, which is being carried out with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will initially focus on data on earthquakes and hot springs. The storage of the data is secured in the short term, but the foreseeable loss of services, for example for processing, is problematic.
Against the hostility towards science
As the University of Bremen explains, the action initially involved the Seismicity Catalog Collection with data on more than four million earthquakes from 2150 BC to 1996 AD. The United States Earthquake Intensity Database, which has also been secured, contains data on damage and the perceived intensity of more than 23,000 earthquakes in what is now the USA and other states between 1638 and 1985. The US authority responsible for this has already announced that this collection will no longer be supported. Other databases have already been secured. All content is to be integrated into the open access library PANGAEA.
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This is in response to "urgent calls for help from the scientific community and NOAA employees", explains Frank Oliver Glöckner from the AWI and assures: "In the short term, the storage of the data is secured." However, the complex services of the US institutions actually responsible cannot be completely replaced in the short term. The Rector of the University of Bremen, Jutta Günther, adds that "without data, there is no research – freely accessible scientific data is essential for research and innovation worldwide". We take responsibility "to ensure that this knowledge is preserved in the future". Anti-science movements must be countered together with researchers from the USA.
It is worrying "when political decisions jeopardize long-term access to fundamental scientific data", adds Michal Kucera, Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer at the university. He is referring to various measures taken by the Trump administration, some of which have serious consequences for science. Even during his first term in office, he exerted influence on research, among other things to delegitimize measures against climate change. In the face of massive budget cuts, thousands of researchers from the USA warned of a climate of fear at the end of March and called for an end to the latest "major attack on science".
(mho)
