Research facilities have been destroyed by the recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, and fear over radiation has brought work to halt at a far greater number of laboratories throughout the Tokyo area. The setback for science will be great, and many in Japan are wondering whether they will ever get their careers back on track. For scientists who are forced to close their labs or who chose to evacuate, there might be hope. Researchers living outside of Japan are trying to think of ways to help scientist-refugees.

University College Dublin’s Suzi Jarvis, who was a scientist in Japan for 8 years including a staff position at the Nanotechnology Research Institute in Tsukuba, wrote me to suggest that foreign universities, including her own, offer some kind of “emergency sabbaticals”:

“Most (especially biology) labs can’t operate when electricity is not stable also many labs have damaged equipment that will not be replaced for the foreseeable future. I would like my university to help by bringing people here for ‘emergency sabbaticals’. We have space and some accommodation but no salaries. Surely it’s in the interests of the Japanese Government to have its researchers doing something productive somewhere or will they really stop salaries? People with young families would be a priority for the university. We are also thinking about students and what we can do to help. I think many foreign universities should be able to offer some help. Obviously the immediate concern is the humanitarian crisis but beyond that Japan is a technically advanced nation and it can’t just divert all its workforce into reconstruction.”

Philipp Selenko, a biophysicist at FMP Berlin, is likewise trying to organize a German relief effort for Japanese scientists:

“I could imagine that if the situation gets worse (especially with a complete meltdown looming) that quite a number of students and scientists will not be able to pursue their ‘professions’ (let alone their everyday lives) as usual. I know that a lot of research labs in Germany would be able and willing to have people over, house them and enable them to continue their studies or scientific projects in some sort of orderly manner … even if that is only for a short period of time. If such an effort were properly coordinated, I think we could communicate a very strong statement of collegiality and exploit existing scientific networks for a greater good. Now is the time to act, even if it just means calling up Japanese colleagues asking them about their well being, inviting them to Germany for seminars or offering them or their students the possibility of research stays.”

Selenko is setting up a website, www.nipponsciencesupport.net, though no text exists yet, to coordinate efforts with German research institutions, major funding bodies, German universities and the Ministry of Science. “We are working day and night,” he says.