- UK research organisations attract new wave of 10 leading
international researchers to drive breakthroughs in clean energy,
life sciences and advanced technologies through UKRI's
Global Talent Fund.
- Expansion of the Global Talent visa to around 100 businesses
by July set to fast-track research and boost growth.
- New performance stats highlight UK's progress as part of
Horizon Europe, with share of funding climbing to 9.3%.
The UK is cementing its status as a global magnet
for cutting-edge scientific research, with a cohort of
ten leading researchers set to take up new roles supported by the
Global Talent Fund.
Launched last summer with 8 researchers previously announced, the
Fund's dedicated pot of £54 million looks to attract top
international talent to the UK to drive forward their work in
critical areas like Life Sciences, Clean Energy, and AI – all
vital strands of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy.
Among the latest cohort are:
- Professor Bryony DuPont (joining Strathclyde from Oregon
State University, US), who will use AI to improve energy systems
and make them more resilient to our changing environment.
- Dr Ivana Bukvin (joining the Medical Research Council
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, from Stanford
University, US) will pursue research into proteins which improves
our understanding of ageing and neurodegeneration to help tackle
diseases like Huntington's.
Today is a key milestone for the Global Talent Fund, with
all 12 Global Talent Fund research organisations having
successfully recruited international
candidates, demonstrating strong delivery
against initial programme objectives.
In a further boost to the UK's support for international
researchers, UKRI is expanding its Global Talent visa fast-track
route.
At the start of June, the Global Talent visa will expand to cover
the remaining Association for Innovation, Research and Technology
Organisation members (including IBM), supporting the innovations
which improve lives and create jobs across the country. By the
end of July, this will expand to around 100 R&D-intensive
businesses across the key high growth sectors from the Industrial
Strategy including Advanced Manufacturing, and Digital and
Technologies.
The news comes as the latest figures from Horizon Europe – the
world's largest research and innovation programme – show UK
research and international collaboration going from strength to
strength.
The report, covering Horizon 2020 (2014–2020) and the first three
years of Horizon Europe (2021–2024), finds that the UK's share of
funding rose from 5.8% in 2023 to 9.3% in 2024.
Participation has also increased, with the share of proposals
rising from 18.9% to 24%. Higher Education institutions accounted
for a large share of the gains, contributing significantly to the
UK's success in securing funding.
However, there is still ample opportunity to drive this
collaboration further forwards with partners under Horizon
Europe.
Successful projects to have secured Horizon Europe grants to date
include:
- Coordinated by the University of
Glasgow VectorGrid-Africa is a €6.1 million Horizon Europe
project. It establishes the first ever network
to monitor mosquito borne diseases across East and
Southern Africa. The project will use data to enable rapid
detection of invasive species, emerging diseases and
genetic changes such as insecticide resistance. This could enable
earlier detection of emerging risks, improved disease
forecasting, and stronger local scientific capacity.
- BLUECOAT (€3.5m Horizon Europe, launched Oct 2025), led by
the University of Birmingham, is developing highly
durable surface coatings to reduce emissions and pollution
in the maritime and construction industries. This will deliver
significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and harmful
pollutants.
UK organisations can apply for Horizon Europe funding to make
their ideas reality. To find out more, visit the Horizon
Hub.
With HMG expecting to spend over £5 billion on talent over the
upcoming Spending Review period, the UK's offer to international
researchers is going from strength to strength, with world class
research opportunities found across all career stages, including
through ARIA and the National Academy fellowships.
At Davos earlier this year, we announced
how we're emboldening our offer further, including
backing UK scale ups by removing visa fees for international
hires, supporting international companies to enter the UK more
quickly; and removing the financial burden for trailblazers
working in deep tech.
Science Minister said:
It's no coincidence that the world's top researchers –
driving groundbreaking innovations in AI, life sciences,
advanced manufacturing and clean energy – are choosing
to come to the UK to advance their work.
Britain is home to an outstanding science and research community,
and boosted by our participation in Horizon Europe, we're able to
drive forward the kinds of research with international partners
that will change lives and create opportunities here in the UK
and all over the world.
Notes to editors
Today's newly announced Global Talent Fund awardees, are:
- Professor Moshe Parnas (joining University of Birmingham from
Tel Aviv University, Israel) who studies fruit flies to
understand how the brain encodes information and how neural
circuits support behaviour, learning and memory (Life
Sciences)
- Dr Gamze Gürzoy (joining University of Cambridge from
University of Columbia, US) who studies computational biology
across numerous biological systems and problems
(intersecting Digital & Technology and Life Science)
- Dr Markus Tatzgern (joining Warwick University from Salzburg
University of Applied Sciences, Austria) who studies
Extended-Reality (XR), Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) and AI
with the UK providing a strong environment for producing
high-impact work in these areas showing how the UK is attracting
global talent at the cutting edge of technology, design and
responsible innovation (intersecting Advanced Manufacturing and
Creative Industries)
- Professor Trey Ideker (joining University of Oxford from
University of California, San Diego, US) as incoming Director of
the Big Data Institute and faculty in the Nuffield Departments of
Population Health and Medicine, bringing together researchers
from diverse disciplines to harness large, complex, and
heterogeneous biomedical data sets, with unprecedented
opportunities to improve human health worldwide (Digital &
Technology)
- Professor Laura Huckins (joining University of Bath from Yale
University, US) who is returning to the UK after over a decade in
the US with her research which primarily focuses on psychiatric
disorders, with an emphasis on eating disorders and PTSD, and
hopes to bring answers and treatments for vulnerable populations
living with disease (Life Sciences)
- Professor Julia Gottschall (joining Strathclyde from
University of Bremen, Germany) is studying the interaction
between offshore wind farms and the surrounding atmosphere, and
understanding this all us to plan considerably
better at both a project and policy level (Clean
Energy)
- Professor Bryony DuPont (joining Strathclyde from Oregon
State University, US) will bring her research closer to the UK
and European offshore energy sectors, accelerating the industry
partnerships and university collaborations that are central to
her research (Clean Energy)
- Dr Ivana Bukvin (joining Medical Research Council Laboratory
of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, from Stanford University, US)
will bring her protein-folding research to the UK's long
tradition of curiosity-driven science to help shape our
understanding of human biology and disease at a molecular level
(Life Sciences)
- Professor Dimitris Angelakis (joining Southampton from
National University of Singapore) whose research focuses on
scalable quantum computing and quantum-enhanced AI, noting that
the UK has built one of the strongest and most internationally
connected quantum ecosystems in the world, combining excellent
universities, national laboratories, startups, and industrial
partners (intersecting Digital and Technology and Advanced
Manufacturing)
- Dr Giorgio Adamo (joining Southampton from Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore) works in
advanced nanophotonics, focusing on how light behaves at the
nanoscale to enable new technologies such
as superresolution imaging, ultra-thin optical devices,
and novel quantum materials – and hopes to impact sectors as
varied as manufacturing, semiconductors, healthcare, and
environmental monitoring (intersecting Digital and Technology and
Advanced Manufacturing)
The investment is supporting new roles in a range of areas, from
early career starters to senior leadership, and has enabled the
creation of new research teams in priority growth areas such as
Life Sciences, Digital and Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing,
Creative Industries, and Clean Energy.
The Global Talent Fund is also strengthening UK research
capability through early investment in infrastructure and lab
equipment, with some organisations already deploying funding into
specialist facilities and start‑up resources to support
incoming talent.
Link to full Horizon
Europe stats publication.
UK's improved share of grant funding in 2024 is consistent with
increased success in competitive grant funding, coinciding with
the UK's full association to Horizon Europe.
Performance strengthened across most parts of the programme, with
increases in funding share in Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 between 2023
and 2024, while Pillar 3 remained broadly stable.
Other schemes open to talent in UK include:
- The Royal Society's Wolfson Fellowships programme is open for
nominations and enables UK Universities and Research Institutions
to attract outstanding emerging
or established international research leaders with up
to 5-years of support, enriching and strengthening the UK's
scientific base. Nomination deadline for universities: 24 June,
application deadline: 1 July.
- The Royal Academy of Engineering's Research Fellowships are
currently inviting expressions of interest from early-career
engineering researchers looking to gain the time, resources and
support to pursue an ambitious programme of independent research
and establish themselves as future engineering research leaders,
with the award value increased to cover projects up to £1
million, with a maximum Academy contribution of £800,000.
Expressions of interest close: 25 June.
- The Royal Academy of Engineering's Green Future Fellowships
Accelerated International Route is open year-round to exceptional
non-UK-based applicants to enable rapid relocation and impactful
climate innovation in the UK.
- ARIA's expressions of interest are open for UK's Encode AI
for Science Fellowship as programme draws record global talent;
the inaugural Cohort's Fellows have produced 37+ papers and
pre-prints, 16 open-source releases and 50+ new collaborations,
with two ventures already incorporated and more in the
pipeline.
Europe is a great place for talent, and the UK has a
keen mutual interest in ensuring the top global talent is
attracted to, and developed within, Europe, including through the
Choose Europe scheme.
