FLIER leadership programme

Through our FLIER programme, we support emerging leaders in life sciences to collaborate across sectors to solve research and healthcare challenges. This is part of our work to make the UK the best place in the world to have a career in medical sciences.

Summary

Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research (FLIER) is an 18-month programme that equips emerging leaders with a skillset and experiences to create novel solutions and work across boundaries.

What you’ll gain

• increased understanding of effective leadership and innovation through a proven combination of practical workshops, coaching, self-reflection and learning
• practical, in-depth insight into the cultures and drivers of other sectors within health and life sciences beyond your own
• knowledge of how to use tools, contacts, and collaborations to turn your ambitions into action
• strong and long-lasting cross-sector networks of peers and senior leaders
• practical experience of collaborative working through applied learning opportunities.  

Video transcript

Innovation and pushing boundaries are what science should be all about and that's I think the only way that we affect real change.

I'm Dr Jackie Maybin. I'm a Reader and Honorary Consultant Gynecologist at the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. 

I think one of the big challenges for menstrual problems is the fact that it's very difficult to speak about it and there is a big society taboo about menstruation and that does present challenges whenyou're working in the field.

The sort of overall aim is to really improve things for people who are experiencing menstrual disorders. You know some people are bleeding so heavily that they can't leave the house for one week out of four and they're missing school and work and it has a knock on impact and I think there's real inequalities that people who are suffering these problems have.

I think with that in mind, quite early in my career I had to start to engage with media and really sort of facilitate that conversation around menstrual problems and also with policy makers, I think it's really important to engage with them to raise awareness of the issues and try and really drive societal change in the area.

My first interaction with the Academy was whenever I had just started my clinical lecture job. I applied for one of their Starter Grants for Clinical Lectures and I didn't get it. I was gutted at the time but in retrospect I think it's probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. Looking back at it and really having to sort of go back to that application and you know think about how it did or didn't fit the remit, how I'd constructed it, what my big question was and how it was going to lead to the next step, I realized that I had made lots of mistakes and I think you often learn way more from failure than success so I'm actually very pleased that I didn't get that. And I reworked the proposal and that got funded and that allowed me to really get a body of work together and finish off a piece of work that was really key to getting my Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship from the Welcome Trust. So I think that just that small pot of money and having that support to pull together data when you're in a busy clinical job and things was really invaluable to to that application.

And I felt that my training to date had all been in the research and the clinical and how to do things myself and what was lacking was that ability to develop other people and give them the space to really concentrate on that work while I took on all of the things to protect them to give them space to do it. So I felt that my role was now sort of more funding, managing people, trying to broaden our research and our interactions and collaborate across different sectors. 

And the FLIER programme came up and I saw it on the website and other people had kindly flagged it to me and I just thought it ticked all those boxes and the skills that perhaps I hadn't had formal training in.

My imposter syndrome went wild when I met everyone in the FLIER programme. They're an amazing group of people with really diverse skills. I think we'll probably all agree that just coming together and talking and brainstorming and venting sometimes has been probably one of the most invaluable things about the whole scheme.

I think there's many ways to be an effective leader. For me I think you have to be authentic, so I think you have to play to your strengths and I think you have to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. I like to keep that long-term vision in my mind of what we're trying to achieve and then let people work towards that. 

For biomedical research we need to really make sure that we are doing research that is important for society and I think that will be a combination of hypothesis-driven research and perhaps having the flexibility for this blue sky research that recently we've seen the importance of with the development of vaccines and everything else. I think that will include acknowledgement that we need a diverse workforce, a diverse research population, we need to think about reproducibility and research integrity.

I'm very positive about the future of biomedical research. I think the Academy and others are doing lots of great work to try and tackle some of the root problems that currently exist and I would love it to be an attractive career that people love and really want to invest in because I think that without it we're going to really struggle.

Who can apply

Mid-career professionals who are established in a sector connected to the life sciences and who  have the ability to effect organisational change. Previous participants include entrepreneurs, NHS trust leaders, Civil Service heads, science communicators, bioengineers, clinical academics, AI in health specialists, academic department heads and lecturers.

You will have motivation, vision, creative and radical thinking, curiosity about others, a willingness to understand different perspectives, and the potential to lead change.

Duration

18 months. You should expect to spend around 20 days a year on the core elements. 

When to apply

Dates for the next round are to be confirmed.

How to apply

Application details will be provided nearer to the time of the next round. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

Please note we ask employers to provide a contribution of £5,000 + VAT to signal that they endorse your participation. 

Selection process

Selection is via a competitive process. If you are unsuccessful, you will be invited to take part in our mentoring programme as a mentee. The selection panel consists of independent experts and leaders from across life sciences. Previous programme participants may also be on the panel. 

What alumni say

FLIER gave me “permission” to think more broadly on how we can address bigger picture issues. Some of that is from being with a cohort of remarkable people and seeing what everyone's able to do. It also gives you the skill set to operationalise some of those bigger things.  

Professor Jason Gill

FLIER has been transformative. I have created an entirely new organisation from zero and FLIER gave me the skills, confidence, and network to make it happen. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now without FLIER. 

Mike Trenell

Supporters

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Wellcome 

Further information

We run the programme with Living Potential, our delivery partner. Their facilitators help us create a high-quality experience for every FLIER participant. If you have any further questions, please contact us on [email protected].