Olga Gubar arrived in Strasbourg on March 15. This biologist fled kyiv with her husband and three children to settle on the outskirts of the Alsatian capital that she already knew: “Between 2008 and 2013, I did a thesis between the University of Strasbourg and the Taras Shevchenko National University in kyiv. It was they who wrote to me with a proposal to go with the family to come to Strasbourg .”
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On Tuesday March 29, the Ukrainian scientist obtained her papers allowing her to work within the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences (INCI), a research laboratory of the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg. His recruitment (6,000 euros in three months) was financed by an emergency fund supplied by the Ministry of Research and Education. It was created a month ago to temporarily accommodate these scientists fleeing their country invaded by Russia and to support them financially.
The reception of Ukrainian academics is managed by the Pause program of the Collège de France. This system, created in 2017 for researchers and artists in exile, was able to act quickly, rejoices Laure Lohéac, the executive director: “It was really a question of responding to the emergency by really adapting to the need, that is to say effectively the immediate reception of the scientists who flee the bombs so that then we can reintegrate them into the more traditional system. It was really this possibility of offering a shelter to continue their professional life”.
“It’s important, beyond the trauma of leaving, to be able to rebuild and stabilize here.”
Laure Lohéac, executive director of the Pause programat franceinfo
At the end of the three months, these Ukrainian scientists will have the possibility of extending their presence in France, up to two years. This will require further evaluation of their work, of their projects. But, for the moment, Olga Gubar does not know if she will wish to stay: “We are all a bit lost because yes, we would like to go back, but we don’t know if it will be resolved in three months. So that’s the problem, I think”.
the @Program_PAUSE opens a special emergency aid fund for artists and cultural professionals affected by the war in Ukraine.
All information: https://t.co/07qkF2in8N#StandWithUkraine #RefugeesWelcome #NoWar pic.twitter.com/aq9KClzuIT— PAUSE (@Programme_PAUSE) March 20, 2022
In one month of existence, the emergency fund has received nearly 150 applications, enough to consume all the credits allocated, including the 500,000 euros from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The Pause program is therefore looking for new funding, particularly from the private sector.