You may have heard about the Home Secretary, Teresa May’s, announcement of a cap on non-EU economic migrant workers on the news and in the newspapers.  Many of the reports I have seen have made reference to the concerns expressed by the science community about the impact of such a cap on attracting international researchers.  The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) have an excellent briefing on the issue which is available on their website.

We have picked-up similar concerns among our members and support the work CaSE is doing in this area.  In any one year charities will be supporting arund 3000 scientists across the UK.  Some of these people will undoubtedly be non-EU migrants making an invaluable contribution to UK and international science.  Indeed, I seem to remember that Nobel Prize Winner, Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, made just this point when he addressed the All-Party Parliamentary Group n Medical Research annual dinner earlier this year (also reported on this blog).

Later this week the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Medical Research will be reconstituted following the start of the new parliament.  When they do so, the members will no doubt identify the issues which they wish to tackle over the coming months.  I am hopeful that this will be one of them.