Not a single scientist has applied to a UK government visa scheme for Nobel prize laureates and other award winners so far. The initiative was launched six months ago, according to New Scientist. The scheme faced à lot of criticism from scientists and was even described as “a joke” or even a “verbal diarrhoea of optimism” .

The fast-track visa route was launched last May by the British government concerning award-winners in four different fields: science, engineering, the humanities and medicine. The aim was to encourage these brilliant people to come working in the UK.

As New Scientist reports, this prestigious prize route makes it easier for some academics to apply for a Global Talent visa – it requires only one application, with no need to meet conditions such as a grant from the UK Research and Innovation funding body or a job offer at a UK organisation. 

“Winners of these awards have reached the pinnacle of their career and they have so much to offer the UK (…) This is exactly what our new points-based immigration system was designed for – attracting the best and brightest based on the skills and talent they have, not where they’ve come from,” explained home secretary Priti Patel when the prestigious prize scheme was launched in May. 

Yet despite these efforts, not a single person working in the humanities, engineering, medicine or science applied for a visa through this route.

Andre Geim, Nobel prize winner in 2010 for his work on graphene, used rather harsh words to describe the initiative. In his opinion, chances that a single Nobel or Turing laureate would move to the UK to work are “zero for the next decade or so.”

The most common reasons for this failure given by several scientists relate to what is perceived as a lack of consistent support from the British government for scientists as well as the unattractiveness of the UK for foreign students due among others to the international fees they have to pay while working in the UK. 

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen

Photos: Unsplash