A new report from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) indicates that the UK immigration system is having a detrimental effect on research in the UK. 

CRUK’s institutes are led by and made up of a combination of UK and international researchers, but now it says that the UK immigration system is a barrier to international talent. 

Successive UK Governments have increased the costs and restrictions in the UK immigration system, making it harder for researchers to come to the UK. 

CRUK said: “It’s encouraging that the new UK Government has acknowledged the importance of global talent. But with costs still sky-high compared to other leading research nations, their ambitions to boost UK science and secure its place on the world stage are at risk. Without action, progress in areas like cancer research will continue to suffer.” 

The charity is calling on the UK Government to:  

  • Reduce immigration costs to be competitive with comparable leading research nations.  
  • Improve government messaging to present the UK as welcoming to international talent. 
  • Maintain fast-track settlement for researchers by retaining the three-year route to settlement under the Global Talent visa. 
  • Support access to the Global Talent visa to enable wider use by research organisations and use its attributes to attract talent to the UK. 

Barriers to recruitment of researchers 

According to the report, 96% of UK cancer researchers involved in recruitment have faced barriers to recruit international researchers – including the impact of Brexit, the cost and complexity of the visa system and low salaries. 

CRUK institutes cover visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge for researchers and have had to increase budgets as these fees increase, diverting money away from cancer research projects. In the latest financial year, 2024-25, the cost of visa fees was over £870,000. 

As a result, many CRUK institutes are struggling to recruit top talent. 

“Research projects have been left on hold while positions are unfilled, and when those roles are tied to time-sensitive grant funded work, valuable opportunities can be lost,” said Dr Seva Makeev, Bioinformatics & Biostatistics Team Lead at the Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre. “Beating cancer is a massive effort. Our project data are ready for a suitably qualified person to analyse and interpret them. Yet multiple rounds of recruitment and delays in visa processing have slowed down a very interesting project on early detection of lung cancer – research which is sorely needed to save more lives.”