Success of £13 million programme for Ukrainian academics prompts call from chair of security committee
The government should launch a long-term scheme for bringing foreign researchers under threat to the UK, according to the chair of an influential parliamentary committee.
Julian Lewis, chair of the joint Intelligence and Security Committee, said the Researchers at Risk fellowship scheme for hosting Ukrainian academics displaced by the war had been a success and should be opened to academics in other countries.
Launched in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Researchers at Risk scheme was backed with nearly £13 million in public money. The programme, delivered by the Council for At-Risk Academics and the UK’s national academies, has provided around 180 Ukrainian researchers with a salary, research and living costs for up to two years.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on 12 September, Lewis praised the programme’s effectiveness but said the funding had now run out.
“I hope that the government will learn from the undoubted success and be prepared to consider a longer-term follow-on scheme, open to academics at risk around the world,” Lewis said.
Visa question
Home Office minister Sarah Dines said that the government is “committed to the cause of academic freedom globally and to ensuring that at-risk academics have a place of safety in which to study, teach and carry out research, including within the UK”.
Lewis also called on the Home Office to consider “ways in which the visa regime might be adapted” to help at-risk researchers.
Dines said: “Our work and study visa regime provides opportunities for such individuals to come to the UK and to continue their careers here, either on a permanent basis or until such time as it is safe for them to return to their own country.”