How the Global Talent Visa can help attract the best and brightest

CRUK-funded researchers typically tend to apply via Routes 2 and 3 – both fast-tracked routes – depending on whether you’ll be, or are currently, a member of staff employed on a CRUK-grant or based at one of our core-funded Institutes, or if you hold the award yourself as a CRUK Fellow (the latter use Route 2).

I’ll cover Route 3 first here as I’ve heard some misconceptions about this route.

Route 3: For members of staff employed on a CRUK-grant

CRUK is an approved UK research and innovation funder on Route 3, so  your application can be fast tracked.

Fast track endorsement under route 3 is available for staff employed on a CRUK grant or those based at a core-funded CRUK Institute.

Your host institution must also be on the list of employing or hosting institutions approved by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for Global Talent. Most of the institutions CRUK typically funds are on this list, and our core-funded Institutes are also covered.

To be eligible, you’ll also need to:

• Be on a grant award valuing at least £30,000 and a duration of at least two years,
• have at least 1 year remaining on your employment contract,
• spend at least 50% of your working time contributing to the award,
• be hosted or employed by an eligible institution approved by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

For endorsement, you’ll need to submit:

• your Grant Award Letter (GAL),

• a statement of guarantee from the organisation that is employing or hosting you.

If you are funded by CRUK, you’ll only need to provide the Grant Award Letter you already have – no additional information will be needed other than the statement of guarantee from your host institution.

To date since 2020, when this application route began, all of our CRUK associated applications via the UKRI endorsed funder route have been endorsed, with none rejected.

For the second application stage, you’ll then apply via the Global Talent Visa via the Government website.

Route 2: For CRUK Fellows

Most of our Fellows are eligible for the fast-track option under Route 2: individual fellowship, either under ‘Exceptional talent’ or ‘Exceptional promise’.

If you hold one of our CRUK fellowship awards approved by the Royal Society you’re guaranteed an endorsement of your Global Talent visa application.

CRUK’s approved fellowship funding schemes are:

‘Exceptional talent’:

• Programme Foundation Award
• Senior Cancer Research Fellowship

‘Exceptional promise’:

• Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship
• Career Development Fellowship
• Career Establishment Award
• Clinician Scientist Fellowship
• Clinical Trial Fellowship Award
• Population Research Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Postdoctoral Research Bursary for Clinical Trainees

To apply for Route 2 endorsement, you’ll need a copy of your fellowship Grant Award Letter and you can  apply directly on the Government website.

You can apply for the Global Talent visa at the same time as you apply for endorsement, or after you have the endorsement confirmed.

If you are already in the UK, you may also be able to switch to the GTV from other visas.

What visa costs does CRUK cover?

If you’re a member of staff employed on a CRUK response-mode grant or a CRUK Fellow, you can use your CRUK award to cover the costs of the GTV application fees and GTV-associated immigration health surcharge costs. We don’t provide costs for partners or dependents or cover costs for other types of visas – there are further details on our Costs Guidance page.

If you’re based at one of our core-funded CRUK Institutes, your Institute will have its own policy for covering visa costs. Please contact your Institute directly for further advice.

We need you!

We really want to hear about the challenges you face so that we can be best placed to help shape the development of visa routes for the cancer research community. We know there are complexities in the different visa routes – high upfront costs to individuals and Immigration Health Surcharge costs for example – but we’re keen to hear more potential barriers.

Our Head of Research Careers, Dr Matt Kaiser is a member of UKRI’s Global Talent Visa External Advisory Board (EAB), so the more information he has, the better he can advise on how  to address barriers for international researchers.

We recently published our policy position paper calling for Government to do more to attract international researchers, in particular in relation to recent visa issues.

We’ll continue to work with UKRI and others to promote awareness of the GTV to make it as accessible as possible for our researchers. We’ll also continue to investigate the impact of recent visa changes on our research community and to share these insights to increase Government awareness of the consequences for research.

We’re keen to hear from researchers and their institutions about your experience or barriers accessing the Global Talent Visa and how we can help resolve these.

Get in touch at [email protected]