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Academic research is beyond doubt an international endeavour. Despite the many barriers to researcher mobility past and present, the research world is replete with shining examples of researchers who have moved away from their countries of origin and achieved great things in their fields^[1]. Perhaps the first question to try and answer is, why move your research efforts to the United Kingdom in the first place? While my personal reasons for doing so — funding, networks, geography, and language — may be specific to me and my field (quantum physics), they are quite broadly applicable. The UK has a well-funded public research system, with many different bodies (UKRI, ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, the Royal Academy of Engineering, to name a few) running parallel funding schemes. Alongside this, the UK has many private funders (the Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome are two examples) and is currently associated with Horizon Europe, giving us access to the EU funding schemes such as the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants. Visa fees aside, the UK is particularly easy to emigrate to, given that English is the official language, and most UK university departments already consist of immigrants from all over the world. The UK is also well placed in terms of geography — a hop away from Europe and with good flight connections to the US and Asia.

Nevertheless, moving your research career here entails many challenges. Let’s start with the biggest one: money. UK Visa fees are some of the highest in the world^[2], and quite frankly, out of reach for the average academic. Many UK Universities reimburse these for their employees, but dependents are often not covered. A solution can often be found if moving here with external research funding, as UK funders can be quite flexible in allowing you to cover Visa costs for your family. However, it is best to have this conversation with the funder at an early stage. The same applies to moving your existing research grants to the UK — national funders such as UKRI often have agreements with funders in other countries, such as the “money follows researcher” programme in Europe^[3]. Programmes such as these allow you to transfer existing grants from one country to the other. However, fair warning, they can often come with significant administrative hurdles and requirements that you must be ready to navigate!

Career progression in the UK academic system is quite different from many other countries, which can come as a surprise to someone moving here. For example, the concept of “tenure” does not exist at UK  institutions, with academic positions expected to be permanent unless explicitly stated otherwise or tied to fixed-term funding. Positions normally have a probationary period and associated conditions that are set in consultation with the hired academic. It would be prudent at this point to ensure that these are reasonable and there is clarity on how strictly they will be enforced. The lack of a formal tenure process certainly reduces the lack of job security one may feel at an early career stage. However, there can be confusion around what exactly is required to be promoted in the UK. Most universities publish lists of promotion criteria that cover everything from research and teaching to wider forms of recognition and achievement. These can also include a requirement to demonstrate non-academic impact, such as influence on policy or the economy. An academic applying for promotion must demonstrate how they meet a certain number of these criteria, which is normally done in consultation with their manager. Like the “tenure clock,” promotion timelines are often fixed, but these can sometimes be bypassed when one receives exceptional grant funding or awards.

Establishing your research group in any new country, let alone the UK, can be quite difficult. There are many hurdles to overcome, from unfamiliarity with national research funders to attracting and hiring talent. The most helpful thing you can do is to find a mentor, preferably a not-so-senior academic, who has successfully overcome these hurdles recently at yours or a similar UK institution. A mentor can help you navigate the complex power structures that normally exist at UK universities, as well as make intelligent decisions about possible UK grant and fellowship applications. They can guide you in the best advertising and hiring practices and help you identify what is critically important to focus on at your career stage. Finally, it is important to highlight an advantage that being an immigrant gives you, one that few early career UK academics have: your international academic network. You can, and must, leverage your international network when hiring students, when establishing new research collaborations, and applying for joint funding schemes. It is also important to maintain and grow this network by regularly visiting colleagues and delivering talks at institutions and conferences abroad.

My own experience of moving to Scotland in 2018 as an Assistant Professor from a second postdoc in Austria was initiated by a to-be-mentor approaching me at a conference in the US. He suggested that I apply for an early career fellowship in the UK and made a very convincing case for moving there. At the time I was quite set on moving back to the US and had not considered the UK as an option. Obtaining the fellowship certainly helped — most faculty “start-up” packages in the UK are very small compared to other countries, and it can be difficult to initiate a large research effort without external funding. I was able to move a small grant with me from Austria to the UK, although managing it across international borders (and languages) proved quite challenging! While UK Visa costs were a fraction of what they are today, they were still a large proportion of my savings, and I managed to recoup most of them after vigorous negotiations with my university. Maintaining strong connections with my former colleagues in Europe, the US, and India has been instrumental to my success in the UK — from helping me hire incredibly driven young researchers from around the world to pursuing new and exciting research collaborations. While it seemed scary at first, moving my research efforts to and growing them in the UK has been an exciting and immensely rewarding experience, one that I would happily recommend.

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References

[1] Petersen A M 2018 Multiscale impact of researcher mobility J. R. Soc.Interface 15 20180580, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2018.0580.
[2] UK immigration costs: an international comparison of skilled worker, researcher andstudent visas in 2025, ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, /-/media/policy/publications/2025/summary-of-visa-costs-analysis-2025.pdf
[3] “Money follows researcher” programme, Science Europe, https://scienceeurope.org/our-priorities/cross-border-collaboration/money-followsresearcher/.