Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the factors which explain why academics and researchers emigrate.

Academic research is increasingly international and collaborative. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills commissioned Elsevier to examine how the UK research base compares internationally, and what trends may influence the UK’s future standing.

The report, 'International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base – 2013'^[1], highlighted UK as a focal point for global research collaboration and researcher mobility. It acknowledged international collaboration and researcher mobility as being core to the maintenance and further development of the UK’s world-class research base, and found that over 70% of active UK researchers were internationally mobile between 1996 and 2012.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/263729/bis-13-1297-international-comparative-performance-of-the-UK-research-base-2013.pdf