  Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected excitations of the
magnetization vector field with promising applications in spintronics and
spin-caloritronics, particularly due to their high mobility. Skyrmions can be
steered by a spin-polarized charge current or by exposure to a magnonic spin
current. Here, we propose a further method for driving skyrmions by applying an
inhomogeneous electric field and a homogeneous thermal bias. We show that the
inhomogeneous electric torque leads to an efficient skyrmionic drag which can
be thermally assisted as to enhance the skyrmion velocity. The calculations and
analysis are limited to insulating samples; for conducting materials the
influence of the inhomogeneous electric field on the charge carriers need to be
taken also into account.
