Taking a look at the latest guidance from the official visa guide - Global Talent Visa | Tech Nation
I’d base my selection on 2 criteria
- Position in food chain aka role
- Expertise / citations / reputation
Also I’d filter out those with <12 months of collaboration
With that said, I’d choose #1, head of lab at university and 1 among other 7 options.
My understanding is that >5 yr ago is fine as far as “recommendation letter” is concerned. For evidences on mandatory/optional criteria, documents should be <5 yr ago.
Discussed here - Recommender from employer more than 5 years ago
I haven’t applied yet myself but from reading here - You can only choose 2 out of 4 [by design]. So yes you should drop criteria.
Yes sure. But that’s not enough for satisfying the criteria. You have to still add 2-3 documents to beef up that criteria.
Should be okay. Only write what’s possible while respecting the “confidentiality rules” you’ve signed. I remember reading someone anonymizing things or just giving high-level information in such cases. There might be smarter ways of retaining confidentiality but still proving. Unfortunately I don’t know how to do that myself.
Not an expert. But >5 YOE is the main difference between talent & promise from the official guide. So by that definition, you’d have to wait 3 years [given your current 2YOE].