We are looking for new Regional Champions to lead the Academy’s work in the South-East and North-East. Our Champions from across the country play a vital role to promote and connect the Academy and its Fellowship in their areas, 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.
Our Champions also act as ambassadors for the Fellowship election; supporting and encouraging nominations from their regions to help ensure that the Fellowship is as representative as possible of the UK's diversity of talent, both geographically and across disciplines. 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.
Over the last year our Regional Champions have contributed to an impressive array of events that have helped increase wider Academy engagement - with events in Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Oxford, Birmingham and Southampton and others in planning for Cardiff, Southampton and Cambridge this autumn. These events have included career development opportunities for early career researchers, regional celebrations of success, public lectures, research conferences and networking events for local Fellows.
The Regional Champions handing on their positions this autumn are Professor Christine Harrison (North-East) and Professor Stephen Holgate (South-East) . They will be standing down from service at our AGM in early December from which point incoming Champs will take office. We would like to sincerely thank Christine and Stephen for serving with such enthusiasm and commitment, and we look forward to working with those who will next take 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’s staff. Any Fellow within the regions is eligible to apply for these three-year roles. New Regional Champions will be offered an introductory induction session in February next year.
A person specification, together with a brief description of activities and the background objectives of the Regional Champions scheme, is available to download from the side of this page. Fellows interested should complete the expression of interest form and send it to Alison Rojo before Tuesday 1 October 2019 (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 welcome to contact Nick Hillier to find out more about the scheme (nick.hillier@acmedsci.ac.uk).
Renewal of Regional Champions 2019, role overview and expression of interest form