The Royal Society has announced a £30 million fund designed to attract global research talent to the UK.

The Faraday Fellowship “accelerated international route” will provide up to £4 million per academic or group willing to relocate to British universities and research institutes, over a period of five to 10 years. The society said that it would be willing to consider larger awards “in exceptional circumstances”.

The announcement comes as countries around the world vie to attract leading scholars who are considering fleeing the US in protest at Donald Trump’s attacks on research funding and diversity initiatives.

Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, said that international science was “in a state of flux with some of the certainties of the post-war era now under question.

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“With funding streams and academic freedom coming under threat, the best scientific talent will be looking for stability. The UK can be at the front of the queue in attracting that talent,” Smith said.

“Our new opportunity, combined with schemes from [UK Research and Innovation] and the Royal Academy of Engineering, is a step in the right direction.”

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The society said that two-thirds of the initiative’s budget would come from the Faraday Discovery Fellowship Fund, part of a £250 million government endowment set aside in 2023 to support attempts to attract mid-career academics to the UK. The society will top this up with £10 million of its own, enabling the scheme to be widened to cover researchers at other career stages.

Full eligibility criteria will be published by the end of June.

The announcement follows the European Union’s unveiling of a €500 million (£421 million) fund to attract researchers, including doubling the maximum grant available to those arriving from outside the bloc to set up a laboratory or research team to €2 million.

Individual European countries and universities have also launched initiatives to attract international researchers following Trump’s election, including a NKr100 million (£7.3 million) scheme in Norway. France’s University of Aix-Marseille is providing €15 million in grants for those seeking “scientific asylum” from the US.

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Leading scientists have been calling on the UK to launch a similar initiative. However, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has warned that such attempts could be stymied by UK immigration policies, including high visa and healthcare costs.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com