Scientists: Working in the United Kingdom

Question

15:09:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to encourage scientists from around the world to do their research and associated work in the United Kingdom.

The UK has a world-leading science base, supported by some of the top universities and research institutions, and offers prestigious fellowships and professorships through UKRI and the national learned academies. As the immigration White Paper sets out, we will now go further in ensuring that the very highly skilled, including top scientists and researchers, have opportunities to come to the UK and access our targeted routes for the brightest and best global talent. We will set out more details in due course.

My Lords, I like to think that my noble friend the Minister’s Answer does not go quite as far as he personally would want it to. In America, the Trump Administration are mounting an attack on universities and scientific research. That is a matter for them, but for us it offers an unparalleled opportunity, and we must grasp it. Can the Government not develop proposals that would attract, encourage and facilitate not only talented individuals but whole research groups, who could come to do their work in universities around the UK? Does my noble friend not agree that this would offer the prospect of a brain gain of immeasurable potential for our future growth?

I thank my noble friend. We have always been the beneficiaries of brain gain; we have been attractive to top-class overseas researchers for many years. Indeed, about one-third of our Nobel prize winners are first or second-generation immigrants. For 2025-26, UKRI has roughly £770 million for talent funding, of which £170 million is for future leader fellowships. There is an opportunity, as there always is, to attract people from overseas to the UK, both individuals and groups; indeed, there are mechanisms in place to do so. I am looking very carefully at what further mechanisms can be put in place to make sure we remain a country that attracts the very brightest and best.

My Lords, the Government’s immigration White Paper, as the Minister said, expresses the ambition to attract top global talent, including scientists. However, measures such as the increased skills charge, alongside high UK visa costs and the challenging context of flat cash real-terms cuts in core research funding, create barriers to recruitment. The Government seem not to be very clear whether they want to attract international scientists or not. Do we not need a proper long-term plan with increasing investment to maintain the UK’s research leadership and attract talent?

The current SR period has £20.4 billion for R&D, which is the highest amount there has been. Of course, a proportion of that is about talent attraction. The talent attraction announced in the White Paper was geared towards the global talent visa—the level of highly skilled people who can bring great value added to this country. The desire is to increase the threshold for the skilled worker visa to aim for more qualified, more talented people. On the high-talent end of the system, there are clear measures in the immigration White Paper to try to get those systems to work better and faster. The cost of visas and the health surcharge is now met on UKRI grants and on Horizon Europe grants.

The Minister will have sensed the widespread support for the Government’s plan to launch an initiative in this field. Can we have a date on which this is going to be published, and clarity on whether it will target American academics, who have become very unsettled by the assault on academic freedom in the United States? Can he also tell us whether the Prime Minister’s recent announcement on immigration will have any adverse consequences for what was originally planned?

As I said in answer to an earlier question, I am keen to make sure we have a robust system to attract the best talent from all over the world—this is not targeted at any particular place—and I will make announcements about that very shortly. In the immigration White Paper, the routes for a global talent visa are specifically pulled out as ones that will become easier. They will be facilitated to make this happen, as will those in other highly skilled areas. There are measures in the White Paper that make that easier for the highly skilled individuals we need both for the research sector and, indeed, the tech sector and companies.

My Lords, I am sure my noble friend is aware of the large number of charities that support research that brings overseas senior academics to the UK. I mention the Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships; Weizmann UK, which brings scientists from the Weizmann in Israel to the UK; and a large number of others. They contribute enormously to our science space.

I thank my noble friend. He is quite right; there are a number of schemes from charities and, indeed, as I have said, from the academies. Over £200 million of funding goes to the national academies to support their core activities. The vast majority of that is spent on research and talent schemes. Some £400 million was given to the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering as an endowment for their specific fellowship schemes—the Faraday Discovery Fellowships, and, for engineers, the Green Future Fellowships. There are many charities that also contribute, and we are fortunate in this country to have charities, including the Wellcome Trust, that provide substantial funding for fellowship schemes.

My Lords, other countries have been quick to act decisively in the light of the Trump Administration’s severe cuts to US science budgets. Is there not a real danger of the UK falling behind? Should this not be addressed very urgently?

I reiterate the point I made: it is very important that we make schemes available to people from all over the world; it is not about targeting a specific country. We will do so, and we are working on schemes to make attractive offers both to individuals and to groups. This is an important area. There have already been many approaches to universities for people who want to base themselves here, and it is important that we have a system that is sustainable and effective, making sure that researchers can work in what is a world-class system in the UK.

My Lords, whether they are homegrown or imported, it is clear we are increasingly going to need more researchers in this country. Equally increasingly, we are competing internationally for research talent. What, therefore, is the Government’s assessment of our overall net attractiveness to researchers right now? How do the Government propose to monitor this going forward and adapt as needed?

An estimated 17% of R&D workers in the UK in 2023 were non-UK. In that year, 7% were EU nationals and 10% were non-EU. In the university sector, about 37% at the top research and teaching universities are non-UK nationals. About 25% of the life sciences workforce was born outside the UK. The noble Viscount is quite right that there are many people we need here. We have always needed them, we will need them, and we are monitoring very carefully how these numbers are evolving. As part of the immigration White Paper, the labour market evidence group is being set up—comprised of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, the Department for Work and Pensions, Skills England and the Migration Advisory Committee—to make sure that we have a clear view of future needs.

My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister talk to his colleagues in the Home Office to ensure that the graduate route, which was established some years ago and provides universities in the UK with academic talent and scientists from other countries—I think particularly of Queen’s University Belfast, which is assisted by students and scientists from south-east Asia—is not minimised or undermined in any way?

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. In answer to the first part, I can confirm that the Minister sitting next to me heard that, so the Home Office will be aware. The graduate visa system is an important system. The changes in the immigration White Paper effectively reduce from 24 months to 18 months the amount of time a graduate has after finishing their course to get a job. The reason for that is clear: to try to make sure these people get jobs that are highly skilled and that they can continue in, rather than jobs that are not highly skilled. This is an important route. It is worth noting that in 2023-24, the number of graduate visas increased by 49%. This has been a rapidly growing area. It is important that we make sure we get this right and that these people enter high-skilled jobs.