https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.91.9a

The Policy Committee welcomes Ed Hayes, our new Policy Officer, who started in March. He and the Committee are committed to creating value for our members. One of our priorities going forward is to refresh the policy pages on the Society’s website to provide a more useful resource. With this in mind, we have created the policy stakeholder map displayed below, together with a combined index accessible from the policy webpages www.physoc.org/policy. The map provides a portal to further information on policy issues that may be of interest and shows the diverse range of people with which The Society interacts.

Policy Collaborations

Much like scientific research, the majority of high-impact policy work is achieved in collaboration with others. Recently, The Society has had interactions with representatives covering every sector on the stakeholder map.

Animal research is a great example of how the sector has come together to achieve unified goals. The Society is collaborating with funding bodies, universities, industry bodies, charities and others on the ‘Concordat of Openness on Animal Research’. We have a position on the working group and are working hard to make sure that the concordat achieves its aims. Further information can be found online at www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/policy/concordat-on-openness-on-animal-research.

In addition, as a member of the UK Bioscience Sector Coalition (UKBSC), we have responded to three separate Home Office consultations on animal research in 2013. Special thanks must go to Professor Max Headley who has put in a Herculean effort to make sure that The Society’s position of enhancing animal welfare, whilst making sure that unnecessary bureaucratic burdens are not placed on researchers, is fully incorporated into the new Home Office guidelines. This has been the core theme in the UKBSC responses. Max has penned a detailed update on the current situation regarding the new regulations on the use of animals in research, which you can read on page 10.

The Society has also been collaborating with the Science Council and others on plans for this year’s political party conferences. In addition, we are working alongside the British Pharmacological Society, the Biochemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry and others in a joint project on the skills of the Drug Development Pathways. The group recently had a letter published in the Financial Times, which The Physiological Society co-signed.

….Watch Policy Corner to follow the outcome of this and other actions.