https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.95.8

Come and meet us at Physiology 2014

The Policy Committee will have a stand at Physiology 2014, which is taking place at the QEII conference centre, London, from 30 June to 2 July. Whether you have an interest in our Engaging with Parliamentarians scheme (www.physoc.org/engaging-parliamentarians), want to raise a specific policy issue, or would just like to find out more about our activities, please come along for a chat.

Society signs Concordat on Openness on Animal Research

The Society is delighted to announce that it has joined fellow learned societies, funding organisations, universities and industry bodies in signing the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research. Over the past 12 months The Society, alongside a number of other stakeholders, has been heavily involved in the development of the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research. Following a public consultation, the Concordat was finalised in early 2014. It calls for signatories to be more open about the use of animals in scientific research and highlights practical steps that stakeholders can take to achieve this.

Society supports the Wellcome Trust in lobbying the EU parliament

In advance of a debate in the EU Parliament on the use of EU funding for research that involves the destruction of embryos, The Society joined 30 other organisations in signing a statement in support of stem cell and reproductive health research. The debate was triggered by an EU wide petition, which received over 1.7 million signatures, calling on a ban on EU funding for research that ‘presuppose the destruction of human embryos’.
The statement, co-ordinated by the Wellcome Trust, was circulated to MEPs and relevant Directorate-Generals in the European Commission ahead of the debate. Following the debate the EU Commission was due to provide its response to the petition by 28 May.

Parliamentary scientific poster competition

In March, the annual SET for Britain parliamentary scientific poster competition took place, with The Society continuing its sponsorship of the event. The competition provides a unique platform to inform the significant number of MPs who attend the event about the cutting edge science taking place in the UK. The Society would like to thank Members Sarah Hall, Rachel Tribe and Sue Wray for helping in the difficult job of judging the 60 bioscience posters on display.

Status and valuation of HE teaching workshop

The Society, along with the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Society of Biology and the Heads of UK Biosciences hosted a workshop on the status and valuation of teaching in Higher Education. The workshop brought together key stakeholders from over 50 HEIs and affiliated organisations to share best practice and processes. Delegates heard perspectives from across the sector and examples of best practice before breaking out to discuss different processes for evaluating teaching effectively. The consensus view of the delegates was that a cultural shift was needed to encourage a greater amount of pride in teaching achievements and that new systems were required to recognise and highlight teaching excellence. The Society is continuing to work with partner organisations to decide how best to take this policy issue forward.

If you are interested in these or any other policy related issues please contact us at policy@physoc.org