PARIS — The European Union launched a drive Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans after the Trump administration froze U.S. government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the “Choose Europe for Science” event in Paris.

“No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas. But here we are.”

Taking the same stage at the Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a trained doctor, said the EU’s executive branch would set up a “super grant” program aimed at offering “a longer-term perspective to the very best” in the field.

She said 500 million euros ($566 million) will be put forward in 2025 to 2027 “to make Europe a magnet for researchers.” It would be injected into the European Research Council, which already has a budget of more than 16 billion euros ($18 billion) for 2021 to 2027.

Since last month, hundreds of university researchers in the United States have had National Science Foundation funding canceled for more than 380 grant projects to comply with President Donald Trump’s order to end support to research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation.