Your Society: How we’re working through our three-year strategy 

Last year, we launched our Strategic Plan 2022-24. As we approach the third and final year of this plan, we have been assessing our progress and ensuring we are prepared to reach our core aims. 

Looking at the Strategic Plan 

There are three main pillars to the strategy: 

• Progressing our pharmacology priorities 
• Celebrating and connecting the community 
• Sustaining the Society 

These overarching goals align with our core purpose to promote and advance all disciplines of pharmacology. This includes the discovery, development and use of medicines, recognising the contribution of pharmacology to the development of drugs, and encouraging equitable access to drugs, and drug safety, in wider society. 

Preparing for 2024 

At the start of our strategic plan, we set a series of objectives to ensure that the various areas of our work have clear outcomes, and that we are equipped to deliver them. We have continuously reviewed and reported these objectives throughout the delivery of the strategy, but have been looking closely at them over recent months to make sure we enter 2024 ready with everything we need to get the work done. 

Our to-do list covers activity across the Society, encompassing the work our staff team does with members and partners to deliver on our main pillars. One of these activities is to use insight generated by our Events and Training Working Group to create a strategic and comprehensive programme of interesting and inclusive focus meetings, networking events and training workshops in 2024. After the successes of the 19th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (WCP2023) we are preparing to return to our traditional Winter timing for our annual meeting, Pharmacology 2024, which will take place in Harrogate next December.  

We are also looking at the results of a recent survey to ensure sustainable growth of our journals portfolio. Our aim is to maintain the high-quality output of our journals and to ensure a steady income stream to the Society. This will allow us to invest in additional projects that help us achieve our scientific aims and provide more membership benefits to you.  

Another key area is to maintain and enhance member satisfaction by growing our membership base, and looking at the content, benefits and opportunities to connect we provide for our members. We want to integrate and elevate all voices within our membership to create opportunities to influence decision-making across all levels. Please do get in touch if you have feedback on how we can improve our membership offer. 

Supporting the staff team 

As well as exploring the specific activities we aim to deliver for our community, we’ve also worked with the staff to  create an environment where everyone can thrive and be proud of their achievements. This is a key part of our values-based approach and our core aims to be inclusive, nurturing, professional and bold. After a busy year, with some significant changes, staff are keen to look ahead, build joy within teams and to focus on using their expertise and ability to deliver work within their areas. We are a small staff team, and it is important that we work collaboratively and efficiently to achieve our aims. This year we said goodbye to some key individuals who have made a significant impact within the Society, and I wanted to share my personal thanks for all their hard work. I wish them well in their next career steps. 

Achieving our goals through teamwork 

It is my duty as CEO to oversee the strategy and its underlying activities, but our approach to preparing for 2024 is collaborative. With our staff, Trustees, committee members, editorial boards and our wider membership base, we have an opportunity to ensure the Society continues to do meaningful work that benefits the pharmacology community, and subsequently wider society. The work we do in 2024 will help us lay the financial and strategic building blocks to ensure we can expand our efforts in the years to come.  

As always, we encourage feedback on our work from those who want to support our efforts to serve our community. 

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