Offer scientists stability or the UK’s health and economy will get poorer

Every time a brilliant researcher decides the UK is too expensive – or too unsettling – to call home, we don’t just lose a colleague. We risk losing the next life-saving breakthrough.

I was recently in the process of hiring a scientist to join my research programme when he told me: “Samra, I can’t afford to bring my family to the UK.” The obstacle was not salary, or willingness to relocate. It was the cost: visa fees, healthcare surcharges and uncertainty about settlement. In the end, Britain didn’t lose him to a better scientific offer. It lost him to a system that had priced him out and pushed him away.

Stories such as this are alarmingly common. The UK has two main routes for scientists to come here: the skilled worker visa and the global talent visas. They are among the most expensive in the world, When compared with similar categories in other countries, the UK comes out as one of the costliest – up to 17 times more than the average across leading research nations. Scientists relocating with families face paying tens of thousands of pounds upfront.

The financial impact is significant, particularly for early career researchers and clinician scientists, who often earn modest salaries relative to their expertise. But the impact is more than financial.

Science is not short-term: breakthroughs build incrementally, often over many years. Research teams develop highly specialised expertise that cannot easily be replaced. When a member leaves because their visa expires or settlement feels out of reach, years of progress can unravel.

The proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain are stoking anxiety across the scientific community. Scientists who came here in good faith, contributing to the UK’s economic success in life sciences, face uncertainty about their long-term future. If the changes go ahead, scientists on skilled worker visas could face a decade-long wait for settlement – double the current period.

At my institute, that would affect the majority of internationally recruited researchers and, for many, would represent a change to what they expected when deciding to move to the UK. The current five-year pathway to settlement must be retained for scientists, along with the three-year fast-track route for those on global talent visas.

Stability is not a luxury: it is a necessity for long-term scientific success. And it’s a vital part of the UK remaining globally competitive when recruiting international talent.

Meanwhile, the costs continue to rise. People coming to the UK already “pay double”; first, in visa fees and the immigration health surcharge, and then again through the taxes and national insurance contributions they make once working here. The health surcharge increased by 66% two years ago, and longer routes to settlement mean further renewals, further payments and further uncertainty.

The government has acknowledged the UK’s offer is not competitive enough. At Davos in January, the chancellor announced that visa fees would be refunded for people working in certain high-growth companies. That is welcome for parts of the private sector, but it implicitly recognises that high visa costs are a problem.

Scientists in academia, the NHS and research institutes must not be left behind – a point made in a report to the “global talent taskforce” using data  gathered across Cancer Research UK institutes.

Other research-intensive nations have lower barriers to international talent. They are streamlining processes and signalling that talent is valued. In this international competition, Britain does not need to close its doors outright to lose ground.

The UK must be more competitive in attracting top global talent by reducing the barriers for the world’s best scientists to come and work here. A review by the migration advisory committee into visas for top talent is welcome, and must address these barriers effectively.

Good science is relentless. It builds discovery upon discovery, often over decades. The treatments patients will rely on in the future depend on research undertaken today; and that research frequently depends on international collaboration. The scientist who discovers the drug that saves your life might not have been born here.

What matters is whether they can afford – and feel able – to build their career here. This is not a partisan argument. Nor is it an abstract one. It is about whether the UK wishes to remain a global scientific leader and whether we are willing to align our immigration policies with our ambitions for economic growth and better health.

It is time to give scientists the stability they deserve. Cut the cost of visas. Retain shorter routes to settlement. Ensure that those who come here to contribute feel welcome. If we do this, the UK can become the best place in the world for science and innovation.

But the global competition for scientific talent is intensifying, and unless these barriers are removed, the UK risks watching the next generation of breakthroughs happen elsewhere.

Prof Samra Turajlić is director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute

Photograph by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images