International Science: A View From the UK
Jim Smith, Director of Science at the Wellcome Trust
From exploring the cosmos to sequencing genomes, scientific progress is often the result of collaboration. The International Space Station and the Human Genome Project are two of the most visible examples, but at any moment there are innumerable international scientific collaborations taking place around the globe. Whether it’s hundreds of researchers or just two or three people joining forces, teamwork is at the heart of modern science.
This is clearly reflected in my own research. Since 2016 I have published, or am about to publish, with researchers based in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. My UK-based collaborations have involved colleagues originally from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Nepal, Portugal, Switzerland and the USA. And during this year, my developmental biology laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute has been made up of researchers from half a dozen different countries and, without doubt, we are the stronger for it.
This diversity reflects a wider trend in UK science. The nation’s science workforce is both international and highly mobile. Around 17% of academic staff at UK universities are non-UK EU nationals, while a further 12% come from the rest of the world. Over two thirds of UK researchers have trained or worked abroad, and over the last year, about 28% of Wellcome’s personal awards went to non-UK EEA nationals.
Over a third of UK PhD students take up a position in another country after completing their training, and I know from experience how important this is to early-career researchers, having moved to Boston Massachusetts after doing my PhD in London. This was scientifically rewarding, but I also found it a profoundly liberating and formative experience.
But these opportunities do not come out of nowhere, and international movement and collaboration require nurturing and they require systems that are often invisible. These systems include policies that allow data sharing across countries, multi-hospital clinical trials, open access publishing of results, and international funding schemes such as the EU framework programmes.
But above all else, visa and immigration systems set the parameters for travelling or moving internationally for training or work. Freedom of movement across the EU has been incredibly effective at supporting scientific collaboration. As the UK prepares to leave the bloc, Wellcome is working hard to ensure that researchers can continue to collaborate and work across Europe. This means ensuring that any new systems or processes are quick and easy to use, that support is extended to family members, and that all elements of the research workforce are considered, from technicians, to PhD students, to the most eminent scientists. Our immigration system briefing, submitted to the Government’s Science and Technology Committee in June, outlines our recommendations in detail.
We’re also working to improve the UK’s immigration system for researchers who come from further afield, and there have recently been some improvements for researchers from outside the European Economic Area. We’re very pleased to see the launch of a new UK visa to support short-term research collaborations. Under the new scheme, twelve endorsed organisations — including both the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Francis Crick Institute — will now be able to sponsor researchers to come to the UK. But despite these advances, the system for non-EEA nationals is still not quick or agile enough, and it relies too heavily on qualifications and salary (researchers are not always well paid!) as proxies for skill.
For Wellcome’s part, several of our award-holders are guaranteed endorsement for the Research and Innovation Talent Visa, and visa and settled status fees are an allowable cost on all Wellcome grants for researchers and their families. We also recognise how important it is for researchers to be able to balance their careers with their family lives, and our policies reflect this. Alongside the Francis Crick Institute and GlaxoSmithKline, Wellcome recently launched EDIS (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health Research), a new network that aims to inspire the UK scientific community to make equality and diversity a top priority.
In an increasingly fractured world, we need to speak up for the importance of collaboration and the systems that support it. As a first step, I encourage researchers to complete Together Science Can’s survey, which explores the science community’s experiences of travelling or moving for training or work. By understanding the factors that supported you, the challenges you faced, and the results of your time in a different country, we can help shape the future of science policy.
The time has come to speak up for the value of international movement and collaboration, so let’s make our voices heard.
Jim Smith is Director of Science at the Wellcome Trust. A globally recognised developmental biologist, Dr Smith was previously Deputy CEO and Chief of Strategy at the Medical Research Council and Director of Research at the Francis Crick Institute.
