Encourage international talent to support cancer research
To keep discovering new cancer tests and treatments, we need to be able to recruit and retain the best talent and scientific leaders.
Being a global institution is part of what makes us successful and international talent is a key part of our research workforce. More than 35 per cent of our staff are from outside of the UK and we have staff from 67 different countries.
Recent modelling by the Royal Society showed that total upfront visa costs are up to seventeen times higher in the UK compared to the international average. It is simply not sustainable to have barriers of this magnitude in the way of attracting the best global talent when we are competing with the leading universities, institutes and companies across Europe and the USA.
Our ask: The UK needs a visa and immigration system which is competitive with other leading research nations. This is essential for us to continue being internationally leading and to compete with institutes and universities across the world. The Government should support the aim of recruiting international talent and leaders by reducing the costs for researchers, so the UK is competitive with comparable nations.
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We’re now 100 days into the new Government and the ICR’s Advocacy Manager, Ollie Richards, outlines what academic institutions need the Government to prioritise to help us on our mission to continue making the discoveries that defeat cancer.
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