Attracting and retaining international talent

The government has demonstrated its commitment to making the UK a science and innovation superpower by announcing its ambitious target to increase investment in research and development (R&D) to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. To achieve this target the government also announced it will be raising public investment in R&D to £22 billion per year by 2024/25 – a record increase in spending.

It's important to recognise and build upon what has already established the UK’s reputation as an attractive destination to do research. There is no doubting our international research performance – we have been ranked 1st for field-weighted citation impact in the G7 every year since 2007. 

In 2018, the UK produced 14% of the world’s most highly cited publications. The UK, compared to other countries, has the largest proportion of its research among the world’s most highly cited publications.

In short, this is an area where we punch well above our weight.

If the UK is to sustain its target of 2.4% research intensity, it is estimated that the R&D sector will need at least an additional 150,000 researchers and technicians by 2030. It will not be enough to rely on British nationals – we need a sector that can continue to attract and retain overseas talent from all backgrounds and at all stages of their careers.

This fact has been readily acknowledged in the government’s 2021 people and culture strategy. A range of interventions have been introduced to diversify and widen routes into the UK:

• the Global Talent visa, which allows fast and straightforward entry for high skilled international scientists and researchers
• changes made to the Graduate Route, making it easier for promising young international graduates to secure skilled jobs in the UK
• continued development of the GREAT campaign website, designed to attract overseas talent to the UK

These recent immigration reforms recognise the importance of overseas talent contributing to our science and research ecosystem and have been warmly welcomed by the higher education sector. However, further changes to the immigration system will be needed if the UK is to reach the 2.4% target and continue attracting overseas researchers in the face of increasing international competition.

There are a wide range of factors a researcher will consider when choosing a destination country and institution. What an individual prioritises will depend on their circumstances which are likely to change as they progress throughout their career. If the UK is to achieve its ambition of becoming a science and innovation superpower, our offers need to be attractive at all stages of a researcher’s career.

We've developed a framework that considers visa and immigration obstacles for international researchers at three stages of their careers to structure our suggestions on how the immigration system could be reformed.

1. Early career researchers (ECRs)

We suggest the Home Office: 

• Undertakes a benchmarking exercise to review visa application costs to ensure we are at least in line with our international competitors, if not more competitive on the grounds of cost.
• Enables applicants to pay the IHS over a series of staggered monthly payments over the lifetime of their visa, rather than requiring the total upfront.
• Continues to work with the sector in developing later stages of the GREAT campaign website, paying particular focus to support for ECRs on potential career pathway

2. Mid career researchers (MCRs)

We suggest the Home Office:

• Reviews and reforms ‘sole responsibility’ test to be more inclusive to diverse family structures.
• Reviews dependency visa costs to reduce the upfront financial burden for researchers with large families.
• Works with the sector in developing later stages of the GREAT campaign website to include practical information on housing, schools, and support for childcare for families settling in the UK.

3. International researchers

We suggest the Home Office: 

• Enables family members on dependent visas to apply for ILR after three years, in line with those on the Global Talent visa.
• Enables visa application costs to be transferred across institutions when updating an applicant’s visa.

We've put together the following examples of the kind of problems are researchers currently facing.