Oxford philosopher Ralph Wedgwood–a Brit who took his PhD at Cornell and taught at MIT before returning “home”–writes:

“I was very interested by your post on ‘When will Britain Try to Recruit Its Leading Philosophers Home?‘

“Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine the mandarins of the British ‘Department for Education and Skills’ (as it is now called), let alone their political masters, getting very worked up about what you rightly call the ‘brain drain of philosophical talent’ from the UK. Gradgrind’s ruthlessly utilitarian conception of the value of education seems pretty firmly entrenched there.

“That said, there are probably better opportunities for externally-funded research leave in the UK than in the US at the moment. The most notable sources of such external funds for research leave in the UK are the government-funded AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board) and British Academy, and private organizations like the Leverhulme Trust:

“The AHRB runs a large scheme under which one additional term of leave is provided immediately following ordinary sabbatical leave.

“The British Academy funds a small number of Senior Fellowships (one year) and Readerships (two years) in the humanities.

“The Leverhulme Trust funds a small number of Research Fellowships each year, for a tenure of 2-3 years, in the humanities and social sciences.

“Ironically, though, these bodies don’t seem at all interested in using their resources to recruit the leading British philosophers back to the UK. I was rather surprised to find out that to be eligible for one of these Leverhulme Research Fellowships, one *must* have held a UK University post for the previous five years. So the only effect of these Fellowships on the brain drain is that the eminent scholar will leave the UK a bit later, at the end of his or her Research Fellowship, than they would otherwise have done (this is exactly what Peacocke did).

“If your question, ‘When will Britain Try to Recruit Its Leading Philosophers Home?’, is about when there will be a concerted effort, co-ordinated across all the top UK universities, whether by the government or in some other way, to recruit back some of the UK’s best philosophical exports, then I fear that the answer is, ‘Not for a very long time — if ever.’”