The world’s top scientists will be encouraged to move to the UK under a shake-up of immigration rules announced by the Prime Minister earlier this month.
Boris Johnson has instructed the Home Office and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to work with the scientific community to develop a new fast-track visa route for the brightest and best, with a view to launching it later this year.
“Britain has a proud history of innovation, with home-grown inventions spanning from the humble bicycle to the lightbulb.,” said Boris Johnson. “We were home to the world’s first national DNA database, we discovered graphene, and our cutting-edge scientists should be proud to follow in the footsteps of titans like Ada Lovelace and Nobel Laureates Francis Crick and Peter Higgs.
“But to ensure we continue to lead the way in the advancement of knowledge, we have to not only support the talent that we already have here, but also ensure our immigration system attracts the very best minds from around the world.”
The fast-track immigration route will be designed to attract elite researchers and specialists in science, engineering and technology, from maths Olympiads at the very start of their careers to the winners of internationally recognised prizes and fellowships.
To ensure the UK is the most attractive country to live in and develop new ideas, options which could be discussed with leading institutions and universities include:
– Abolishing the cap on numbers under the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visas.
– Expanding the pool of UK research institutes and universities able to endorse candidates.
– Creating criteria that confer automatic endorsement, subject to immigration checks.
– Ensuring dependents have full access to the labour market.
– Removing the need to hold an offer of employment before arriving.
– Accelerated path to settlement
Article published 27th August 2019