Internationally mobile researchers will be provided with better information about career opportunities following the agreement of a set of principles governing the dissemination of such information by UK higher education bodies.
The four principles, published on 23 January, were agreed by a group of 12 UK funders and other higher education bodies. They focus on providing information on research careers and funding in the UK and abroad.
The first of the principles commits the 12 partners to helping international researchers who have worked in the UK “have access to the information they may require to enable their continuing involvement with the UK research base”.
“It’s about people going abroad and coming back again rather than any issues to do with brain drain,” says Ian Cameron, the head of research careers at Research Councils UK. “Researchers who engage in this type of activity tend to be more productive than those who don’t.”
According to the second and third principles, this aim will be achieved by building content on the Euraxess UK website, which is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and managed by the British Council. This includes information to help researchers working overseas find employment in the UK and vice versa.
The fourth principle says that Euraxess Links, an online networking tool for European researchers working in China, India, the US, Japan and Singapore, will also be promoted.
The British Council has called on the network of science attachés who work at British embassies abroad to promote the Euraxess UK and Euraxess Links websites and is also adding more information to the site about opportunities abroad.
“It’s great that we’re seeing some joined-up thinking on this issue—but of course that’s something that’s sadly sometimes still lacking when it comes to immigration policy and whether or not overseas researchers can get into the country at all,” says Imran Khan, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering. “There are still outstanding problems with over-stringent student visas, the danger that settlement restrictions might put off potential immigrants, and the new ‘exceptional talent’ route doesn’t yet seem to be working properly. The sector and government need to come together to resolve these issues.”
The principles are the result of a report commissioned by BIS, which was published in October by Elsevier. The International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base 2011 found that the UK is a leading research nation in part because of its internationalised research base.