Visa Costs Steering Group

A recent report by our senior partner academy, the Royal Society, has shown that the UK has the highest upfront immigration costs among the world’s 17 leading research countries.  

As an organisation that represents early- to mid-career academics and professionals across diverse sectors, we are investigating the impact of these costs on the research and innovation sectors as a whole, but with a particular focus on the effect on those earlier in their careers.

We are examining how these costs can impact the UK’s ability to attract and retain future leaders across crucially important economic areas, from entrepreneurship to AI, medical research, sustainability, and climate change, among others. 

The Visa Costs Steering Group is approaching this important issue with the following ongoing streams of work: 

• Collaborating with partners across the sector, including our senior partner academies, funders, universities, and industry, as part of a working group convened by the Royal Society to explore the impact of the upfront Immigration Health Surcharges immigration costs in the UK’s R&I (research and innovation) sphere.
• Surveying and interviewing UK Young Academy members and partners to assess the particular impact of these costs on early- to mid-career researchers and professionals arriving or settling in the UK.
• Exploring opportunities with our wider networks to discover how the UK visa process compares with those of similar nations, how this affects perceptions of the UK as a host country, and its impact on attracting talent mobility into the UK.