This year we are looking for new Regional Champions to lead the Academy’s work in East Anglia, the North West and Yorks/Humberside. Our Champions from across the country play a vital role in promoting and connecting the Academy and its local Fellowship, building on the existing collegiality amongst Fellows to increase our reach across local networks and raise awareness of the Academy’s work within the wider local biomedical research communities.The new champions will be joining the scheme at an important time as the Academy explores how to maximise the new digital connections the Coronavirus lockdown has established.
Our Champions also act as ambassadors for the Fellowship election, helping support and encourage nominations from their regions to ensure that the Fellowship is as representative as possible of the UK's diversity of talent, both geographically and across gender, ethnicity and area of expertise. Champions also work to bring the Academy onto the radar of the next generation of researchers and introduce them to our careers schemes and programmes which can benefit their careers.
While events in this programme have sadly been interrupted this year due to social distancing recommendations, we hope soon to be able to resume this important area of activity. Last year our Regional Champions contributed to an impressive array of events - with activities held in Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton, Cardiff and Cambridge, ranging from career development opportunities for early career researchers and regional celebrations of success to public lectures, research conferences and networking events for local Fellows.
Champions handing on their positions this year are: Professor Mary Dixon-Woods (East Anglia), Professor Jørgen Vestbo (North West) and Professor Philip Quirke (Yorks & Humberside). They will be standing down from their role at our AGM in December at which point incoming Champs will take office. We sincerely thank Mary, Jørgen and Phil for their commited support of the regional programme and we look forward to working with the next Fellows taking on these roles.
Regional Champions are provided with dedicated funding for events, opportunities to meet with the wider Champions network, and access to resources, insight and support from the Academy staff. Any Fellow within a rotating region is eligible to apply for these three-year roles. Incoming Champions will be offered an induction session in February next year.
An expression of interest form, person specification and brief role description including background information about the scheme is available to download from this page. Fellows interested should complete the expression of interest form and send it to Alison Rojo by Thursday 1 October 2020 at the latest (alison.rojo@acmedsci.ac.uk)
In the event that more than one nomination is received for a region, Academy Officers will be invited to select a preferred candidate. Fellows who would like to have an informal chat about the role are invited to contact Nick Hillier (nick.hillier@acmedsci.ac.uk) to find out more about the scheme.
Regional Champions 2020: Expression of interest form and role overview