Boost for UK science with unlimited visa offer to the world's brightest and best

Sunday, 26 January 2020 22:30

A new, fast-track visa scheme to attract the world’s top scientists, researchers and mathematicians will open on 20 February. This follows a commitment by the Prime Minister last summer to put science, research and innovation on the top of the Government’s agenda. The bespoke Global Talent route will have no cap on the number of people able to come to the UK, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting top talent. ...Request free trial

A new, fast-track visa scheme to attract the world’s top scientists, researchers and mathematicians will open on 20 February.

This follows a commitment by the Prime Minister last summer to put science, research and innovation on the top of the Government’s agenda.

The bespoke Global Talent route will have no cap on the number of people able to come to the UK, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting top talent.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said:

“The UK has a proud history of scientific discovery, but to lead the field and face the challenges of the future we need to continue to invest in talent and cutting edge research.

“That is why as we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stand ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality.”

The Global Talent route replaces the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route and for the first time UK Research and Innovation will endorse applicants from the scientific and research community. The route will:

Provide for a brand new fast-track scheme, managed by UKRI which will enable UK-based research projects that have received recognised prestigious grants and awards, including from the European Space Agency and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, to recruit top global talent, benefitting higher education institutions, research institutes and eligible public sector research establishments. This will enable an individual to be fast-tracked to the visa application stage.
Double the number of eligible fellowships, such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the European Research Council and Human Frontier Science, which also enable individuals to be fast tracked.
Continue to ensure dependents have full access to the labour market.
Preserve the route’s flexibility by not requiring an individual to hold an offer of employment before arriving or tying them to one specific job.
Provide an accelerated path to settlement for all scientists and researchers who are endorsed on the route.
Provide for an exemption from our absences rules for researchers, and their dependants, where they are required overseas for work-related purposes, ensuring they are not penalised when they apply for settlement.

The changes are part of the initial phase wider reforms to enable those with world class skills in science and research to come to the UK as soon as possible.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said:

“The UK is a world leader in science, with research and innovation that changes lives being undertaken every day in this country.

“To keep the UK at the forefront of innovation, we are taking decisive action to maximise the number of individuals using the Global Talent route including world-class scientists and top researchers who can benefit from fast-tracked entry into the UK.”

The reforms to the Global Talent route coincide with ambitious government investment of up to £300 million to fund experimental and imaginative mathematical sciences research by the very best global talent over the next five years.

With around £60 million funding available per year, the investment will double funding for new PhDs, as well as boost the number of maths fellowships and research projects – increasing the pool of trained mathematicians in the UK and providing more freedom for researchers to develop new ideas.

This funding will make sure the UK remains at the cutting-edge of maths research, underpinning real-world technological developments, from smoother traffic flow, crime prevention, safer air travel, and smarter phone technology to the use of Artificial Intelligence and creating greener energy systems.

Business and Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom said:

“Leaving the EU gives us new freedom to strengthen research and build the foundations for the new industries of tomorrow.

“By attracting more leading international scientists and providing major investment in mathematics, we can make the UK a global science superpower and level up our country.”

The funding forms part of the Government’s ambitions to considerably boost R&D spending and establish the UK as a global science superpower, changing the way people live, work and travel.

To ensure the UK is the best place in the world for research and development, the Government is launching a major review of research bureaucracy and methods, including unnecessary paperwork, arduous funding applications and research selection processes. This will free up and support the best researchers to focus on groundbreaking, ambitious and meaningful research that goes on to cure diseases or improve our transport networks.

UKRI is already taking steps to reduce bureaucracy, and in the coming weeks the Government will be consulting world-leading scientists, researchers, academics and industry figures on what more can be done. As part of this, UKRI will simplify the process to apply for funding, removing the unnecessary requirement to precisely forecast the long-term benefits of projects with unpredictable results.

An ambitious Place Strategy for UK R&D will also be published in the summer to ensure funding builds on strengths of the regions. In addition, this year the government will examine how the UK’s catapult centres can strengthen R&D capacity in local areas, improving productivity and contributing to greater prosperity across the UK.

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, said:

"Today's announcements further underline the importance of research and innovation to the future success of the UK and the government's continued commitment and investment.

“Working with the government, UK Research and Innovation is ensuring that the UK remains a globally leading environment for research and innovation.

“Our ambition is clear, to create a stronger research and innovation environment that is focussed on supporting talented people and realising the full potential of their work."

The Government continues to work closely with the scientific community in developing its proposals and to ensure the UK immigration system attracts the sharpest minds and scientific talent.

The Immigration Rules to bring the visa changes into effect will be made on the 30 January 2020 and come into effect on the 20 February.

Notes to Editors:

The Global Talent visa is open to people who work in a qualifying field and have been endorsed by a recognised UK body.
UKRI will join the Royal Society, British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering as the fourth scientific body on the Global Talent route and will be responsible for endorsing the world-class scientists who apply through the new fast-track scheme.
This builds on the Home Secretary’s announcement in December that the number of eligible fellowships which offer accelerated endorsement for visas for scientists wanting to conduct research in the UK will double from 62 to more than 120.
Those who receive these fellowships will only need to provide a letter from the relevant funding organisation, which will see them fast-tracked to the Home Office / UKVI visa application stage where immigration checks will be carried out.
The Home Office is working to implement these changes so the Global Talent Route can go live in February.
The new scheme will be kept under close review once it is launched.
The advanced mathematics package of around £60m pa is subject to business case and will be developed through engagement with the mathematical sciences community. Mathematical sciences are a key area for UK science, vital both as a standalone discipline and as a key element for the advancement of all areas of science and technology. The package includes the following elements:

£19m additional funding for PhD studentships, doubling current funding, moving to 4-year studentships as standard and offering 5-year funding for research associates to compete with the US and Europe).
£34m additional funding for career pathways and new research projects, including multi-institutional projects and programmes. This new funding will come with more flexibility on the number/length of fellowships and will not be ring-fenced between sub-disciplines, to respond to the nature of candidate applications each year; and with the freedom to grant small amounts for initial research and early-stage idea generation.
£7m additional funding for the Heilbronn Institute (Bristol), the Isaac Newton Institute (Cambridge) and the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (Edinburgh).

We will work through these elements with the mathematical sciences research community in developing the detailed package.
Working with UKRI, universities and researchers, the Government will review how to free up researchers so they have more time delivering ambitious and meaningful studies that will deliver ground-breaking results faster than ever before.
UKRI will immediately remove “Pathways to Impact” statements for research applications. The “impact agenda” remains fundamental – so through 2020, UKRI will pilot simpler, streamlined application and assessment processes for its research and innovation calls.
Government will also be developing a ‘Place’ strategy for Research & Development. This will utilise additional R&D funding to build on local regions’ strengths and enhancing research capacity across the UK – including expanding on the research and innovation strengths of our universities and institutions.
Case study 1: A Government funded programme involving mathematicians, policing partners and social scientists have joined forces to test and improve ‘predictive policing’. Predictive policing uses maths and statistics, based on historical crime data, to predict times and places where serious crimes will occur, allowing police to efficiently allocate resources. The project involves the Department of Mathematics Imperial College London, and includes scientists from UK universities, UK and US police forces, software companies and the Home Office.
Case study 2: Diseases that are relatively minor today could be soon become untreatable and fatal, due to people becoming more resistant to antibiotics. Government-backed research is tackling antibiotic resistance by using mathematical modelling to determine what timing and dosage of antibiotics work best to prevent drug-resistant strains of bacteria emerging. The research was conducted by researchers at Imperial College London.