‘An act of national self-harm’: UK visa system deters top chemistry talent
Immigration policies are making it much more difficult to get scientific talent to come to the UK at a time of global flux
‘An act of national self-harm.’ That’s how the House of Lords science and technology committee describes the UK’s approach to attracting global Stem talent. The government insists it wants to attract the best researchers into the country, yet its immigration policies are making this increasingly difficult thanks to a complex and expensive system of visas and other high upfront costs.
Announced in June, the government’s industrial strategy includes a range of initiatives to attract international talent, such as a new global talent taskforce, which will report to the prime minister and identify ways to make the UK a more attractive destination. A new £54 million global talent fund aims to attract 10 world-class researchers and their teams to the UK over the next five years, and new Turing AI global fellowships targeting overseas researchers will provide £25 million for AI research at UK institutions. The government will also exempt certain occupations, such as engineering technicians and data analysts, from planned increases to the pay threshold for the skilled worker visa.