I am planning to apply for the stage-1 (endorsement) for the global talent visa for the exceptional talent track. My background is academic but will apply in digital technology field so I would like to get your feedback as this is a bit uncommon. I have a PhD (outside UK, graduated 2 years ago) in AI in healthcare and working as a senior research scientist in one of the healttech companies in London, UK. The company I am working is acquired by a big multinational healttech company 2 years ago. I am leading one of the AI projects there. While doing MSc and PhD, I also worked as a software engineer therefore my total experience in this field is more than 5 years. Does the following arrangements make sense?
LoR1: PhD advisor, full professor. He is very close to industry, giving consultancy to companies, VCs etc… LoR2: An academic in UK which is a leader in his field. He is organizer of the several challenges that I participated and won. LoR3: CEO (or CRO) of the company.
MC:
Description of my full-time work (AI model development/research, leading the project and the team etc…) as a senior research scientist along with my salary information (in top 5%).
PhD graduation and the most successful student award (I was the student with highest CGPA (4.00), therefore received an award for this). The school is in the top 300.
PhD scholarships: I have received 2 full scholarship during my PhD, they were based on my previous academic performances.
1 conference (one of the tops in medical image processing) and 1 Q1 journal article which are both first authors. They are directly related to what I am doing in my current company and have been doing in my PhD.
OC-2:
During my PhD, I got two first rank and one third rank in three academic medical image processing challenges. These challenges are from this platform: https://grand-challenge.org/. Participants were from the top universities. These challenges were not directly related to my PhD topic, but still in medical image processing. In this criterion, I will give details regarding this challenges, their impact and the outputs.
I have published the largest publicly available labeled image dataset for a disease. I have collaborated with an hospital and we have collected and annotated 10,000 images. During the last two years it has been downloaded nearly 2000 times and referenced in nearly 30 other works in the same field.
In my previous company, we have created an open source project on Github, that has 445 stars, I am one of the core contributors.
OC-4:
I have 23 research articles and in Google Scholar they are referenced more than 500 times. My h-index and i-10 index are 9.
Conference publications
Journal publications
My questions are:
Two of my recommenders are academic, does it weaken my application? LoR1 is very close to industry, previously he cofounded a company and sold it, and regularly giving consultancies, but how can I show them in my application?
Does the PhD scholarships that I received count in the MC?
In OC-2 point 2, this dataset is created during my PhD, my PhD was on building AI models for a specific disease, so creating and publishing a dataset to advance the field is not directly related to what I was working on but I am afraid it might be evaluated as directly related to the MC.
I think my OC-2 is the weakest, but I collected three different challenge success under 1 point, do you think I should distribute them?
Since my background is very similar to @zrl2000 and @stefano, I would appreciate if you have a look at my application and give some feedback.
apologies for the late reply, it’s been a while and I had to take another look to the current GTV/TN rules before replying.
First of all, all the best with the application! If you’re not in a rush, I would recommend submitting the application when you feel it’s ready and see if it’s considered sufficient for Tech Nation. If it isn’t, they will give you reasons for rejection and you can prepare your next application based on their comments.
On your questions:
I don’t think it would weaken your application, but do make sure the letters follow what is requested by TN. Ask your recommenders to include all those points in the letter (including their phone number and email) and to send you a copy of their CV. LoR1 should include their work with the industry in their CV (and could mention it in the letter too).
I think it can count, along with the fact that you have completed a PhD (which is possibly more remarkable than the scholarship).
I agree with you that OC2 seems to be the weakest point of your application for the reasons you mentioned. I think it’s debatable if the academic challenges and the dataset were part of your job as a PhD candidate or not. You mention that your PhD was in AI in healthcare, but also that the academic medical image processing challenges and dataset should not be considered as part of your PhD. I think you should clearly explain why because they sound quite related to your PhD to me as you presented them.
On a general note, I think you may be able to apply for Global Promise, AI sector (it should be easier to get and requires only one evidence for OC2, even if I would still include two). You mention that
While doing MSc and PhD, I also worked as a software engineer therefore my total experience in this field is more than 5 years. Does the following arrangements make sense?
But I don’t think that experience would count as part of your total experience if it was “pure” SW engineering unrelated to the AI sector.
TN is clear on that in my opinion:
Exceptional promise applicants are likely to have less than 5 years of experience in technology, but can have had a longer career in another type of work. You must be able to prove your potential to be a leader through your skills and achievements.
I’m not associated with TN and I submitted my application in 2023, so please take my comments with a grain of salt (things may have changed since then).
Hello Stefano, huge thanks for taking your time to answer my questions. Regarding the CV of recommenders, how do we submit it to the application system? In the application page is there a field to submit it along with the recommendation letter? My concern is how the TN will know/evaluate the recommenders.
Hi, I am also academic background applicant (final year phd student) and get endorsement on exceptional talent.
For your questions:
1 the two recoomendation letters from academic wont weak your application, as I am also used two RL from academic (2 prof) and 1 from VC.
2, sorry the PhD scholarship cannot be counted as a MC, but if the PhD scholarship belong to EPSRC or other kind of funding, might be okay?
3, dataset can be recognized as part of one evidence, I also put two datasets into one of my OC evidence.
4, OC2 if you can make these files become a story line, I think maybe also okay.
When I applied, the form only allowed to upload a single file, along with a short description, for each recommendation letter. I just merged the two pdfs (letter and cv) together before uploading them.
In addition to the letter itself, I was also asked to fill out name, address, email, telephone number, and “LinkedIn (or other public profile)” for each referee.
With all that information, TN will know/evaluate the recommenders and could also contact them if needed.
In this regard, academic recommenders are not bad in my opinion because they tend to have good/known public profiles that do not require much checking by TN.
Differently from you for MC I used two book chapters I wrote as an evidence. Also, I was reviewer for others work in different book chapters.
From the guidance following are some of suggested evidences for MC.
(Major publication you have in professional or trade publications) Published material in professional or major trade publications or major media about the applicant related to the applicant’s work in the digital technology sector. You must include the title, date and evidence that you are the author of such published material and any necessary translation.
Relevant section from guidance for assessing others work:
You have held or hold a significant expert role participating on panels, or individually, assessing the work of others in the same field or a field of specialisation related to the digital technology sector.
I think you probably have done this as part of your PhD or MSc work. If you have screenshots of the panels or the emails that should be fine.
Not sure how OC2 evidences work but it says following, which looks pretty subjective to me. From the guide:
outside of my immediate occupation that contributed to the advancement of the sector
You might not be able to use the evidence number 1 and 3. Your immediate occupation as student can be considered as your studies. And when you start working, that becomes your immediate occupation But I am not sure.
For OC4:
I used a self supporting document for journal papers I have published. Screenshots of the publications with information regarding the journals (acceptance rate, etc…).
Based on the guide that should do the work since it says:
Evidence of at least one significant contribution to the field in the form of a paper published in a top-tier peer-reviewed journal. Research undertaken as part of an undergraduate or MSc thesis does not qualify for this criteria;
In summary, I think you need to strengthen MC (publications and assessing others work should strengthen it). I am not sure about OC2 but if they interpret it as I do, then you end up with one evidence for OC2.
But I am not sure.