Richard Gonzales reports for NPR:

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a not-so-subtle jab at President Trump, has awarded long-term research grants to 18 climate scientists — 13 of them U.S.-based researchers — to relocate to France and pursue their work with the blessing of a government that doesn’t cast doubt on the threat of climate change.

The announcement Monday makes good on a pledge Macron made earlier this year after the U.S. pulled out of the Paris climate accord to offer France as a “second homeland” to climate researchers in order to “make our planet great again.”

Macron’s appeal produced 1,822 applicants, nearly two-thirds from the United States. Candidates had to have a proven track record on climate research and propose a project that would take three to five years to complete. That period roughly matches Trump current term in office.

Trump has proposed cuts in federal funding for scientific research. As Macron told the winners of the French grants, “we will be there to replace” U.S. support for climate research.

One of the winners, Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas at Austin, told the Associated Press that the French offer “gave me such a psychological boost, to have that kind of support, to have the head of state saying I value what you do.”

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