Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, was speaking at the launch of a new 650-million-pound Francis Crick Institute biomedical research centre in London.
"The Crick will be a place that absolutely attracts the very best people from across the world. We need to make it as easy as possible for that to happen. That is true pre- and post-Brexit. That is absolutely critical for us," Kumar said.
"The fundamental point is that we are all about attracting the best and brightest scientists from wherever they are. That is what underpins fresh thinking and fresh ideas. Science is also dependent on bringing these different perspectives together," he told the Evening Standard.
Cancer Research UK contributed 160 million pounds towards the Crick's landmark new building, beside the famous British Library in King's Cross area of London.
Also Read
"Its one of the biggest fundraising campaigns ever successfully concluded in the UK. If you put to one side Oxford and Cambridge [universities], there aren't many that have been at this sort of level. Its a brilliant new project," Kumar said.
Following Britain's vote to leave the European Union (EU) in the June 23 referendum, there have been some concerns of the impact on joint UK-Europe research projects and ease of bringing in European scientists to conduct research in the UK.
"Its essentially a research discovery institute, it unleashes the curiosity of individual scientists," said Paul Nurse, director of the Crick, as it will be known.
The institute, named after Francis Crick - the British scientist who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for his work on the structure of DNA - will have a budget of about 130 million pounds to seek breakthrough therapies.