A streamlined immigration route to attract prestigious award winners in science, engineering, humanities, the arts and digital technology has received no applications since its launch.
Winners of awards including Nobel Prizes, the Turing Award, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and the Oscars, are able to live and work in the UK more easily under reforms introduced by the Home Office in May 2021.
However, a freedom of information request by New Scientist has revealed that nobody has applied for a visa via this route in the six months since the scheme opened.
Launching the fast-track route on 5 May, home secretary Priti Patel said: “Winners of these awards have reached the pinnacle of their career and they have so much to offer the UK. These important changes will give them the freedom to come and work in our world leading arts, sciences, music, and film industries as we build back better.”
She added: “This is exactly what our new point-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.”
An eligibility list of almost 150 prizes, many of which have been presented annually for numerous years, is estimated to have thousands of past winners. Approximately of half the qualifying accolades are in science, engineering, humanities and medicine.
Jessica Wade, material scientist at Imperial College London and diversity in science campaigner, told New Scientist: “Frankly, having precisely zero people apply for this elitist scheme doesn’t surprise me at all.
“UK scientists’ access to European funding is uncertain, we’re not very attractive to European students as they have to pay international fees, our pensions are being cut and scientific positions in the UK are both rare and precarious.”
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A Home Office spokesperson said the prestigious prize was “just one option under our Global Talent route, through which we have received thousands of applications since its launch in February 2020 and this continues to rise”.
