The Physiological Society (‘The Society’) has won an industry-leading award for the support it has offered members during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Association of Association Executives is composed of 23,000 membership organisations and subscribers from across the world. At their annual UK award ceremony last week The Society beat tough competition to win the ‘Best Member Support during COVID-19’ category.
In March 2020, as the UK went into its first national lockdown, The Society launched its COVID-19 Hub. This Hub provides links to a range of activities that support members on a professional and personal level, as well as providing a virtual community of activity that continues to evolve.
The Hub includes:
- A free professional development webinar series for members
- A series of member-focused scientific webinars to facilitate online conversations with like-minded physiologists
- A virtual journal club to enable physiologists to meet on a regular basis to discuss papers that have been published in The Journal of Physiology.
- Support and guidance on returning to the laboratory safely
- Financial aid to members in the most difficult of financial situations, including those resulting from COVID-19
- Mental health resources, including online training courses and guidance on providing a supportive environment for the management of stress.
- All research papers related to COVID-19 published in The Journal of Physiology and Experimental Physiologyare free to access
The Society also convened a COVID-19 Advisory Panel to bring physiologists and clinicians together to provide an evolving understanding of the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning this disease.
The online meetings organised as part of the COVID-19 Hub have been extremely successful, with over 650 physiologists sharing advice on returning to the lab safety, resulting in production of guidance documents for our community.
Presenting the ‘Best Member Support during COVID-19’ award, the judges said:
“Fast response during the pandemic, the web traffic and huge number of video views show how useful the information prepared and shares by The Physiological Society is to its members. Well done!”
Responding to the news of the award, Chief Executive of The Physiological Society Dariel Burdass said:
“Membership is at the heart of everything we do.
“We quickly adapted our activities and resources to support our members and the academic community throughout a challenging and unfamiliar time. This was only possible because of the innovative, responsive and collaborative way that staff, trustees and members came together to pool resources and new ideas to quickly changing events.
“We were keen to increase our support for members during this time: to provide personal support for physiologists and to highlight the value of physiological research as part of this global threat to health.
“I am delighted that our efforts have been recognised by this award. However, it is also clear that we will be living with the impact of this virus for some time and we are determined to continue supporting our members both now and in the future. Building on the COVID-19 hub, in 2021 we are due to launch a new member area and online community.”
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