£30,000 salary threshold would be detrimental for research and innovation

We need an immigration system that welcomes skilled people from overseas

Today, the UK National Academies unite to oppose the suggested £30,000 salary threshold. The British Academy together with the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering stand together to uphold that a £30,000 salary threshold would be detrimental for research and innovation.

The UK’s research and innovation workforce comprises people with a wide range of skills. This includes established researchers with considerable experience and those at earlier stages of their career, entrepreneurs and innovators, project managers and technicians. The workforce is also supported by specialists who teach future researchers and innovators the skills that they need to succeed. All of these people are important for a successful research and innovation system and many of them are overseas nationals.

The UK will need a larger research and innovation workforce to deliver its ambitions over the coming years. It is important that the future immigration system supports the necessary efforts to expand this workforce, including the recruitment and retention of talented people from overseas for study and work.

This explainer shows how the proposed £30,000 salary threshold for a skilled worker visa might impact on UK research and innovation by limiting the recruitment of certain key staff members.

The Presidents of the National Academies have written a letter to the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, outlining why the £30,000 salary threshold would be detrimental to research and development in the UK.