Introduction

The precompetitive knowledge transfer workshops are part of the RSC's 'Pharma' initiative to support medicines and healthcare research. 

This third workshop, entitled Healthcare Innovation in the UK: The Emerging Model for Medicines Research,  followed on the back of two highly successful workshops on reducing attrition and developing collaborations.  

Programme

The presentations are available for download. 

There was a poster session which provided an opportunity for scientists engaged in medicines research to share their experiences and perspectives on precompetitive collaboration models and the Centre of Excellence.

A key deliverable from the meeting was a coherent set of key messages for Government and Funding Bodies on what is required from them to make this model a reality and, as a consequence, maintain the UK's leadership in medicines research through the 21st Century.

Objectives and outcomes

The main objective of the workshop was to bring together a diverse and influential audience to discuss the Healthcare Innovation action plan - a new, sustainable and holistic model for medicines research that recognises the critical importance of expert medicinal chemists working alongside disease specialists in Centres of Excellence to discover new and effective therapies.

Participants

Workshop participants were drawn from a range of backgrounds. These included:

• Industrial researchers (large pharma, SMEs, biotechs, CROs)
• Academic scientists; e.g. medicinal chemists; researchers in cross-disciplinary groups working on target validation, tool identification, clinical probes, hit discovery, hit/lead optimisation
• Key stakeholders e.g. government departments, funding councils, knowledge transfer organisations, knowledge transfer networks, research charities, sector skills councils, professional bodies