08:30 – 09:00
Networking breakfast
10:10 – 10:35
Break – Opportunity to sign up to mentoring session with North East England Mentoring Organisation (NEMO)
10:35-12:10
Strategies to support the Next Generation of Clinical Academics Short talks & Round-table discussion
12:10-13:00
lunch
Director, The Jenner Institute Lakshmi Mittal & Family Professor of Vaccinology
Adrian V. S. Hill is the Director and Founder of the Jenner Institute and Mittal Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University. His group has been one of the leaders in the development of adenoviral and other vaccines against infectious diseases and he has tested these in extensively in clinical trials in Africa and Europe. In partnership with the Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca the Jenner Institute developed rapidly a ChAdOx1 vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine which saved an estimated 6.2 million lives in 2021 alone. His lab has also designed a new malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-MTM, which has recently reached regulatory reviews for licensure, again in partnership with the Serum Institute of India and also Novavax Inc. In 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours.
Director of Programme Grants for Applied Research and serves on the NIHR Board as Scientific Director for NIHR Infrastructure.
Marian is Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit of the University of Oxford, and an Honorary Consultant in Public Health with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Marian has previously been Programme Director for the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme and Chair of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme Commissioning Committee, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research subcommittee D, and the RfPB Regional Advisory Committee South Central. She was awarded one of the first NIHR Research Professorships in 2012 and was appointed to her personal Chair in Oxford in 2014.
Marian’s research work focuses on using national observational studies to address clinical questions concerning rare and severe complications of pregnancy and early life, and actions to reduce disparities in pregnancy outcomes for women and babies.
Marian obtained her first degree in Medical Sciences in Cambridge and completed her medical training at the University of Edinburgh. She became a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and a Research Lecturer in 2006 at the University of Oxford. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She was appointed MBE in the Kings New Year honours in 2023 for services to maternal and public health.
Professor of Liver Immunology at Newcastle University and PI for the UK-PBC Research Consortium
Professor Jones is Professor of Liver Immunology at Newcastle University and PI for the UK-PBC Research Consortium. He leads the internationally renowned autoimmune liver disease clinical service in Newcastle, hosted by the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust (NUTH). He has worked in the area of the autoimmune liver disease Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) for over 25 years, starting as an MRC Clinical Research and Clinician Scientist Fellow. Working initially on the underpinning biology of the disease he has translated key mechanistic discoveries into new approaches to therapy. The UK-PBC MRC Stratified Medicine programme, which he led, has revolutionised thinking in the disease, defining the unmet need, developing the clinical tools needed to quantify risk and identifying the patient groups who need enhanced therapy in PBC. He has led the evaluation, approval and implementation programmes for the first stratified therapy in PBC (and indeed any rare liver disease), Obeticholic Acid, which is now available across the NHS. He was also the Coordinator for the RARE-LIVER European Reference Network (ERN) which was established to support the development of clinical delivery programmes for rare liver disease (PBC is a rare disease) across Europe.
In addition to his clinical and research work he as a long interest in training and is the NIHR Dean for Faculty Trainees. He has played a key role in the development of new integrated academic pathways which will play a key role in developing the next generation of researchers in the area of Stratified Medicine and its underpinning technologies.
He is an NIHR Senior Investigator and in June 2018 was awarded an OBE for his services to Liver Medicine and Clinical Academic Training.
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Honorary Consultant Physician, NHS Lothian and Co-Director of the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Training Scheme
I am a Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Honorary Consultant Physician, NHS Lothian and Co-Director of the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Training Scheme. I undertook my medical training at the University of Edinburgh graduating in 1997, and an MRC training fellowship at the University of Cambridge with award of my PhD in 2004. My specialist training in Respiratory Medicine was in Sheffield, where I also held a Wellcome Intermediate Fellowship, prior to my move to Edinburgh as a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow. During this time, I had two periods of maternity leave. I am currently based in the Centre for Inflammation Research in the Institute for Regeneration and Repair in Edinburgh. My work is focused on understanding how local oxygen and nutrient availability in the inflamed environment can reprogram neutrophil behaviour in both acute and chronic inflammatory lung disease states.
Dean of the NIHR Academy and serves on the NIHR Board as Scientific Director for Research Capacity and Capabilities
Professor Waljit Dhillo is Dean of the NIHR Academy and serves on the NIHR Board as Scientific Director for Research Capacity and Capabilities. He provides oversight on the development and delivery of NIHR research training programmes to ensure they meet the needs of the current research landscape, as well as identifying future gaps and formulating solutions.
Professor Dhillo is a Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Consultant Endocrinologist. He is Head of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism at Imperial College London. Professor Dhillo was awarded a prestigious NIHR Research Professorship in 2015 and on 1 April 2021 became a NIHR Senior Investigator.
Professor Dhillo has held a number of roles within the NIHR Academy since 2010 and played a critical role in the NIHR Strategic Review of Training in 2017. He has been a member of the National Clinical Research Network (CRN) Metabolic and Endocrine Committee since September 2011.
Professor of Neurology at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Patrick Chinnery is Professor of Neurology at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He runs a combined clinical and laboratory research programme based in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and has been supported by Wellcome since 1995, most recently through a Principal Research Fellowship. He is known for his expertise in rare inherited diseases that affect the nervous system. His lab has been studying the genetic basis of mitochondrial disorders for over two decades, harnessing the power of whole genome sequencing and developing new treatments through experimental medicine and early phase trials. He jointly chairs the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research in Common and Rare diseases, and in October 2023 was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council.
Sir James Mackey Chief Executive, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT
Sir James became Chief Executive of Newcastle Hospitals NHS FT on 1 January 2024.
He was previously Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare and during this time held a two-year secondment in a national role as Chief Executive of NHS Improvement. He was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare and was at the forefront of the region’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw his Trust set up its own factory to make PPE.
Sir James is also Chair of the NHS Customer Board for Procurement and Supply and was appointed by NHS England and NHS Improvement as Senior Responsible Officer and National Director of Elective Recovery for the Elective Programme in Autumn 2021. He was acting Interim Chief Operating Officer of NHS England for a period in 2023.
Dr Mike Jones, Medical Director for Training and Development, Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians
Dr Mike Jones is a Consultant Physician in Acute Medicine at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust having previously fulfilled this role in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh between 2006 and 2012.
He was a Consultant Physician and Deputy Medical Director in NHS Tayside 1992-2006. His first consultant appointment was in 1992 as a Renal Physician. He has been both Director of Training and Vice President at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
He is a founder member and Past President of the Society for Acute Medicine. He was central to guiding Acute Internal Medicine to specialty status and inaugural chair of its Specialist Advisory Committee. He is National Clinical Lead for Acute and General Medicine in NHSE Getting It Right First Time programme.
He has been Medical Director of Training and Development for the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians since 2019. He is also clinical lead for the ACUMEN acute medicine e-learning project.
Ben Murton, Head of Early Career and Career Development Researchers (Discovery Research), Wellcome
Ben joined Wellcome in April 2022 as a Head of team in Discovery Research. His team is responsible for the development and growth of the Early-Career and Career Development Awards as well as ongoing engagement with the researchers who feed into this group and the organisations who support them.
A highlight of the role is the huge breadth of researchers he gets to meet through the Discovery Research remit, and the opportunity to fund a diverse portfolio that will advance understanding in health and wellbeing, as well as contribute to improving research culture. One of the most exciting areas is the increased scope of interdisciplinary projects, as researchers become more creative and committed to hiring and developing teams to address the limits of current knowledge.
Ben previously worked as Head of Skills at The Alan Turing Institute and brings an ongoing commitment to researcher development, especially around the technical and ethical skills needed to work well in our data rich society. Prior to that he worked in the Researcher Development Programme at the University of Cambridge and is an experience trainer with a special interest in communication skills and higher education teaching practice.
His academic background is in biophysics and structural approaches across several biological applications and until recently worked as Director of Studies for pre-clinical biochemistry at St John’s College, Cambridge.
Consultant in Critical Care Medicine and Anaesthetics, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Louise is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne.
She trained as a mentor using the Egan mentoring model in 2015 after a mentoring session helped her make the most of the opportunities available following her anaesthetic exams. Shortly after, she co-founded and now leads NEMO (the North East Mentoring Organisation) which promotes and coordinates mentoring within the Northern Region to all regardless of role and specialty. Louise has facilitated on mentoring courses throughout the UK and has offered taster mentoring sessions at Anaesthesia, Urology and Intensive Care Medicine conferences. Passionate about helping others reach their potential through mentoring she recommends just giving it a go!