Shift from British boosterism in foreign-talent drive draws praise

Despite change in rhetoric, experts warn that sky-high visa costs are discouraging researchers

Science policy experts have hailed a shift in government communications for attracting foreign scientists to the UK, but warned that international recruitment efforts are being “hamstrung” by exorbitant visa costs.

Martin Smith, who heads up the Policy Lab at the biomedical research funder Wellcome, suggested that the past 18 months had marked a rebranding of the way the government presents the UK to the international research community, moving away from the British boosterism reflected in phrases such as ‘science superpower’.