BSI WEEKLY POLICY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATE BSI POLICY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM

MARCH 20TH – MARCH 24TH

1. Article 50 to be triggered on Wednesday March 29th

On Monday, Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the , informed the office of President, , of the UK’s intention to invoke Article 50 on Wednesday March 29th (next Wednesday).

This will formally begin the 2-year timetable by which time the UK must conclude negotiations on its deal with the other 27 EU members.

2. House of Lords debate: EU Membership: UK Science

On Thursday, the House of Lords held a debate on the Science and Technology committee report: ‘A time for boldness: EU membership and UK science after the referendum’, which was published in December. The report highlighted that the EU referendum created uncertainty for EU scientists in the UK and vice-versa and set out a series of recommendations for the government, including reassurances for science and research funding and free movement for researchers.

Lord Prior of Brampton, a Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and the Industrial Strategy responded near the end of the debate by agreeing that there is not “any doubt that research is one of the jewels in the UK’s crown” and that Brexit in line with the new Industrial Strategy will be “a catalyst for change and boldness”. He went on to say that the Government has been explicit in its support for science and research understanding that it is critical for the UK’s future.

4. Director appointed for new UK health and biomedical informatics research institute

Professor Andrew Morris has been appointed Director of the new UK health and biomedical informatics research institute, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK).

HDR UK is a joint investment led by the MRC, together with the health research departments of England, Scotland and Wales; the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; the Economic and Social Research Council; British Heart Foundation; and Wellcome. HDR UK will apply bioinformatics approaches to large scale datasets, such as those from the NHS, to help address pressing clinical research challenges.

Professor Andrew Morris is currently based at the University of Edinburgh, where he is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics. He is also a Director of the Farr Institute’s activities in Scotland. His research interests involve the study of informatics and chronic disease.

5. NHS mandate for 2017 to 2018

The Department of Health has published the NHS mandate for 2017 to 2018, setting out the standards by which NHS performance will be assessed over the coming year. The document includes a number of ambitions on research, aimed primarily at increasing the participation of NHS patients in clinical research trials and also at improving the adoption and diffusion of new innovations by the health service.

6. The BSI recognises TB Day

Today (Friday 24th March) the BSI celebrates ‘World TB Day’.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling droplets from coughs and sneezes of an infected person. According to the WHO TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, claiming an estimated 5,000 lives a day. Yet TB it is a treatable and curable disease and between 2000 and 2015, approximately 49 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment. Ending the TB epidemic by 2030 is among the health targets of the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals put in place by the WHO.

With rates of TB that are higher than many developing countries, London has been described as the “TB capital of Europe”. A new report from the London Assembly Health Committee, ‘Tackling TB in London’, claims that “one Londoner is diagnosed with TB every four hours.” The report makes a number of recommendations to address the problem of TB in London, including recommending that all London boroughs achieve universal BCG coverage by the end of 2017.

This BSI has a number of TB related resources, including pages on our Bitesized immunology page, available here.

7. The BSI’s “A History of Immunology in 60 Objects”. Voting is still open!

We are still calling for our members and the public to vote for their favourite object. Based on feedback, we condensed the list of 60 into a shortlist of 10 objects. All 60 objects can be seen here. Voting will remain open until the end of the weekend, when we will reveal the most popular object!