Government invests £100m to attract highly skilled scientists

The Rutherford Fund – named after nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford - will provide fellowships for early-career and senior researchers as a means of helping to maintain the UK’s position as a world-leader in science and research, the government said.

Launching the initiative today (4 July), universities and science minister Jo Johnson said research and innovation was “at the heart” of the government’s £4.7bn industrial strategy, announced during the 2016 Autumn Statement.

Johnson said: “We look forward to welcoming these talented Rutherford research fellows to the UK. The Rutherford Fund will send a strong signal that, even as we leave the European Union, we are open to the world and will reinforce our ambition of making the UK the go-to country for innovation and discovery.”

The fund is being administered by Innovate UK and the Research Councils until new body UK Research and Investment (UKRI) is formed next year.