Cancer research at risk: the growing impact of immigration costs in the UK

Our research community says that recruitment and retention of talent is the most important factor for successful research.  

This makes it essential to attract and retain international talent, whose contributions go far beyond simply filling roles. 

International researchers bring a diversity of skills, ideas and experience that enhance research, as well as connections that open opportunities for global collaborations. 

The UK has a thriving research ecosystem, which is widely respected by researchers across the world and international research talent is crucial to the health of this system. 

Our Cancer Research UK institutes are led by and made up of a combination of UK and international researchers, together conducting world-leading research. Our latest report shows how the UK immigration system is seriously affecting our institutes.

The UK immigration system is a barrier to international talent

Successive UK Governments have increased the costs and restrictions in the UK immigration system, making it harder for researchers to come to the UK and leaving them feeling unwelcome. 

It’s encouraging that the new UK Government has acknowledged the importance of global talent. But with costs still sky-high compared to other leading research nations, their ambitions to boost UK science and secure its place on the world stage are at risk. Without action, progress in areas like cancer research will continue to suffer. 

We call on the UK Government to: 

1. Reduce immigration costs to be competitive with comparable leading research nations. 
2. Improve government messaging to present the UK as welcoming to international talent.
3. Maintain fast-track settlement for researchers by retaining the 3-year route to settlement under the Global Talent visa.
4. Support access to the Global Talent visa to enable wider use by research organisations and use its attributes to attract talent to the UK. 

How does this impact beating cancer? 

This is one of the biggest challenges facing cancer research and the wider UK research community. 

96% of UK cancer researchers involved in recruitment have faced barriers to recruit international researchers – including the impact of Brexit, the cost and complexity of the visa system and low salaries. 

New evidence from our Cancer Research UK institutes demonstrates how the immigration system is actively limiting the attraction, recruitment and retention of world-class cancer researchers to the UK. 

The challenges, costs, and delays to life-saving cancer research are accumulating and echo challenges experienced more widely by UK R&D. 

Money is being diverted from cancer research 

Our institutes cover visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge for researchers. In the latest financial year, 2024-25, this cost over £870,000. This sum came out of lab group research funding as well as in institute’s core budgets, which usually fund training programmes and advanced research facilities.  

This is pulling money away from crucial cancer research. 

Rather than limiting international recruitment or asking researchers to cover their own costs, our institutes are increasing budgets to absorb rising expenses. This is because international talent is incredibly valuable, and they’re committed to maintaining access to a global pool of research talent, without adding financial barriers that could deter researchers to come to the UK. 

This is cost is equivalent to: 

• Two three-year cancer research projects
• 22 postdoctoral researchers salaries
• Training of 40 new PhD students every year
• Three catalyst awards to accelerate translation of discoveries into cancer drugs

And family costs put huge pressure on researchers 

Most of our institutes, and research organisations in the UK, can’t cover dependent costs. Researchers are taking loans, borrowing from relatives and separating their family, all so they can contribute to UK research. This can have a serious impact on the wellbeing of our researchers. 

In some cases, these additional costs force them to turn down offers to positions at our institutes and take their expertise to other countries instead. Meaning the UK misses out on potentially ground-breaking research. 

It’s getting harder to recruit 

Our institutes are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit the talent they need. Not only are they seeing more rejections, but the number of high-quality applications is also falling.  

As a result, it can take years, and multiple recruitment rounds, to fill roles. At the CRUK Manchester Institute in 2024, two-thirds of recruitment processes for postdoctoral researchers and bioinformaticians faced significant challenges – including 12 offers rejected by candidates. 

While recruitment is proving tough both within the UK and internationally, institutes say the situation has become particularly acute in recent years due to worsening access to global talent.  

So, progress in life-saving research is put on hold 

Research projects have been left on hold while positions are unfilled, and when those roles are tied to time-sensitive grant funded work, valuable opportunities can be lost.

The cost of immigration is costing cancer research. Change is vital and there is strong public support. An overwhelming 95% of people affected by cancer and 73% of the public think it should be easier for researchers to come to the UK. 

We are calling on the government to act now to ensure the immigration system supports it’s ambitions for the nation’s health and economy. 

We need world-class talent to beat cancer sooner. The UK Government must reduce visa costs for researchers and ensure the UK remains a destination of choice for the brightest minds in science.