Top scientists turning down UK jobs over ‘tax on talent’, says Wellcome boss
-Next government urged to lower upfront visa costs that are 17 times higher than international average

惠康總裁稱，頂尖科學(xué)家因“人才稅”而拒絕英國工作崗位
——下屆政府敦促降低前期簽證費(fèi)用，目前英國的簽證費(fèi)用是國際平均水平的18倍


(A researcher with a partner and two children, granted a five-year global talent visa, would have to pay a ￡20,974 UK health surcharge upfront.)

（一名有伴侶和兩個孩子的研究人員，如果獲得了五年的全球人才簽證，必須提前支付20974英鎊的英國醫(yī)療附加費(fèi)。）
新聞：

Top international researchers cannot afford to take jobs in the UK because of a “tax on talent” that makes it impossible for them to afford the upfront costs, the head of the Wellcome Trust has warned.

惠康基金會負(fù)責(zé)人警告稱，頂級國際研究人員無法承擔(dān)在英國工作，因?yàn)橛摹叭瞬哦悺笔顾麄儫o法負(fù)擔(dān)前期成本。

Dr John-Arne R?ttingen, who has led the biomedical research charity since January, said some of the best researchers offered posts in the UK would have to turn them down because they faced having to pay “tens of thousands” in visa fees and surcharges.

約翰-阿恩·羅廷根博士自今年1月以來一直領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這家生物醫(yī)學(xué)研究慈善機(jī)構(gòu)，他表示，英國一些最優(yōu)秀的研究人員將不得不拒絕他們，因?yàn)樗麄儾坏貌恢Ц丁皵?shù)萬美元”的簽證費(fèi)用和附加費(fèi)。

It is more expensive for researchers to move to the UK than to other leading scientific nations such as the US, Japan, Australia and Germany, a situation R?ttingen described as “deeply unhelpful” for the UK’s hopes of reinvigorating the economy, improving the NHS and managing the transition to clean energy.

與美國、日本、澳大利亞和德國等其他領(lǐng)先的科學(xué)國家相比，研究人員遷往英國的成本更高。羅廷根稱，這種情況對英國重振經(jīng)濟(jì)、改善國家醫(yī)療體系和管理向清潔能源過渡的希望“非常無益”。
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“Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the most innovative scientists and researchers, the UK has put up barriers,” R?ttingen told the Guardian. “For centuries the UK has had a huge strategic strength in science and innovation, but it is now sitting back and letting itself be outcompeted.”

“英國沒有為最具創(chuàng)新精神的科學(xué)家和研究人員鋪上紅地毯，而是設(shè)置了障礙，” 羅廷根在接受《衛(wèi)報(bào)》采訪時表示。“幾個世紀(jì)以來，英國在科學(xué)和創(chuàng)新方面一直擁有巨大的戰(zhàn)略優(yōu)勢，但現(xiàn)在它卻坐以待斃，放任自己在競爭中被超越?！?/b>
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He said the next government must “urgently lower the upfront costs” for talented researchers, and argued that the foregone visa fees would quickly be offset by the “huge benefits” in having the finest minds on hand to drive science and technology and grow the economy.

他說，下一屆政府必須“緊急降低”有才華的研究人員的“前期成本”，并辯稱，放棄的簽證費(fèi)將很快被擁有最優(yōu)秀的人才來推動科學(xué)技術(shù)和發(fā)展經(jīng)濟(jì)的“巨大利益”所抵消。
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Recent analysis for the Royal Society found that the largest upfront cost for researchers taking a post in Britain is the immigration health surcharge, which increased 66% in February to ￡1,035 a year. A researcher coming to the UK for five years would need to pay for the full period upfront before a visa was issued.

英國皇家學(xué)會最近的分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，研究人員在英國任職的最大前期成本是移民醫(yī)療附加費(fèi)，今年2月增加了66%，達(dá)到每年1035英鎊。來英國工作5年的研究人員需要在簽證簽發(fā)前支付整個期間的費(fèi)用。

The fees apply even for those coming on a global talent visa, which is designed to attract “l(fā)eaders or potential leaders”, who will have a job offer and would pay taxes like anyone else working in the UK.

這些費(fèi)用甚至適用于那些持有全球人才簽證的人，該簽證旨在吸引“領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者或潛在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者”，他們將獲得工作機(jī)會，并將像在英國工作的其他人一樣納稅。

The fees multiply for researchers planning to bring their families to Britain. A researcher granted a five-year global talent visa and who has a partner and two children would be liable to pay ￡20,974 upfront, with no option to spread the payments. In total, upfront UK visa costs are 17 times higher than the international average and more than those for any other major scientific nation analysed.

對于計(jì)劃將家人帶到英國的研究人員來說，費(fèi)用會成倍增加。一名研究人員獲得了為期五年的全球人才簽證，他有一個伴侶和兩個孩子，他需要預(yù)付20974英鎊，而且不能選擇分期付款?？傮w而言，英國的前期簽證費(fèi)用是國際平均水平的17倍，比所分析的任何其他主要科學(xué)國家都要高。

“While the UK visa costs are rising, other countries are making themselves increasingly attractive by lowering theirs,” R?ttingen said. In 2019, it was 12 times more expensive to come to the UK under the global talent visa for five years than it was to go to France on an equivalent visa. This year it is 21 times more expensive.

“在英國簽證成本上升的同時，其他國家正在通過降低簽證成本來提高自己的吸引力，”羅廷根說。2019年，持全球人才簽證前往英國5年的費(fèi)用是持同等簽證前往法國的12倍。今年是21倍。

Dr Melissa Toups, a senior lecturer in computational genomics at Bournemouth University, has decided to leave the UK because the fees are too high. “It’s hard to explain to people how ridiculously expensive the UK is if you moved post-Brexit,” she tweeted on X. To renew visas for herself and her family of four and cover the immigration health surcharge would have cost four to five months of take-home salary. “I’m a bit heartbroken about it, but we are leaving,” she wrote.

伯恩茅斯大學(xué)計(jì)算基因組學(xué)高級講師梅麗莎·圖普斯博士決定離開英國，因?yàn)橘M(fèi)用太高。她在X上發(fā)推文說：“很難向人們解釋，如果你在脫歐后搬到英國，英國的生活成本有多高，”為自己和四口之家續(xù)簽簽證，并支付移民健康附加費(fèi)，將花費(fèi)四到五個月的實(shí)得工資?！拔矣悬c(diǎn)傷心，但我們要離開了，”她寫道。

Prof Andre Geim, the University of Manchester researcher who shared the 2010 Nobel prize with Prof Konstantin Novoselov for discovering graphene, said: “This is obviously a huge burden, both financial and administrative, for everyone. The last 10 years, especially after Brexit, made things go wild beyond any reason.”

因發(fā)現(xiàn)石墨烯而與康斯坦丁·諾沃謝洛夫教授共同獲得2010年諾貝爾獎的曼徹斯特大學(xué)研究員安德烈·海姆教授說：“對每個人來說，這顯然是一個巨大的負(fù)擔(dān)，無論是財(cái)政上還是行政上。過去10年，尤其是英國脫歐之后，讓事情變得毫無理由地瘋狂。”

Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel laureate at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) and former president of the Royal Society, said the high costs of visas and surcharges were “real disincentives” for the best people who had options elsewhere. “Although places like the LMB can survive in spite of these disincentives, for us to be attractive as a whole nationally, the next government should seriously consider reducing these costs,” he said.

醫(yī)學(xué)研究委員會分子生物學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室的諾貝爾獎得主、英國皇家學(xué)會前主席文基·拉馬克里希南表示，高昂的簽證費(fèi)用和附加費(fèi)對那些有其他選擇的優(yōu)秀人才來說是“真正的阻礙”。他表示：“盡管存在這些不利因素，但像醫(yī)學(xué)研究委員會分子生物學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室這樣的地方能夠生存下來，但要想讓我們在全國范圍內(nèi)保持整體吸引力，下屆政府應(yīng)該認(rèn)真考慮降低這些成本?！?/b>

Prof Alison Noble, a foreign secretary of the Royal Society, said the steep rise in upfront visa costs made the UK an outlier by international standards.

英國皇家學(xué)會外交大臣艾莉森·諾布爾教授表示，以國際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)衡量，前期簽證費(fèi)用的大幅上漲使英國成為一個異常值。

“We are now 21 times more expensive than France and a breathtaking 34 times costlier than Germany, which puts the competitiveness of our research base, and the scientific, economic and technological advances it delivers, in a precarious position,” she said. “In a global market for talent, we need to remove barriers that deter world-leading researchers from coming to the UK.”

她說：“我們現(xiàn)在的成本比法國高21倍，比德國高34倍，令人震驚，這使得我們的研究基地的競爭力，以及它帶來的科學(xué)、經(jīng)濟(jì)和技術(shù)進(jìn)步，處于不穩(wěn)定的境地。在全球人才市場，我們需要消除阻礙世界頂尖研究人員來到英國的障礙?！?br />