President's Message: A busy year has begun – and we want you to get involved

With abstract submissions and bursary applications closed, and the deadline for early bird registrations fast approaching, excitement is really starting to build for the World Congress of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology 2023.

I’m pleased to share that we have received over 1,500 abstracts from 80 countries, covering a wide range of topics. The six-day programme is unmissable; I’m particularly excited to listen to talks on anti-microbial resistance and the recent work on heparin mimetics. I’m also looking forward to the numerous social aspects of the meeting, including catching up with friends and colleagues from across the world at the Gala Dinner at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and enjoying a traditional cèilidh evening at Platform.

Early bird registration closes on 17 March 2023. This is your opportunity to attend the meeting at a discounted rate – you could save almost 40% -  so make sure you register soon to benefit from this.
Additionally, we will open the callout soon for student volunteers to help us run the meeting. This is a great way for students to get involved in a fantastic conference about pharmacology, and we will share more information about what this opportunity entails, and how to apply, very soon.

Coming up even sooner is the focused meeting ‘Binding Kinetics and Mechanistic PK/PD Modeling in Early Drug Discovery’, which will take place at the Møller Institute in Cambridge and online on 27-28 March 2023. Hosted by the Society and AstraZeneca, this meeting is a must-attend for anyone working or researching in this area. Register now to secure one of the last in-person spots, or to attend as an online delegate.

Aside from meetings, the Society has been working to open a number of awards and prizes for 2023. It is important to us that we recognise outstanding achievement in pharmacology, as well as providing opportunities for students and early career researchers to get the funding they need in order to achieve great things. Currently, there are four career support awards open, and six awards of recognition; take a look at the full list of prizes and awards open now, and get your applications in by 17 March 2023.

For those who might be looking for their next editorial opportunity, I encourage you to apply to become the next Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Pharmacology Research & Perspectives (PR&P), the journal we share with ASPET. This open access journal has grown in stature over the last couple of years, and is publishing high-quality work on both preclinical and clinical pharmacology, recently achieving its first impact factor of 2.963. Applications for this position close on 1 June 2023.

All of our journals – the British Journal of Pharmacology, the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacology Research & Perspectives – welcome high quality new paper submissions. I would encourage our members to consider submitting your work to one of these publications, where your research findings will benefit from considered and fair peer review to ensure we publish only the highest quality research, maintaining the deserved, internationally recognised reputation of our journals.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that the Society, with help from our Trustees on Council, is currently undertaking a number of projects to consider the long term sustainability of the BPS and what activities we want to prioritise for our membership and the wider pharmacological community over the next 5-10 years. We will soon be launching a survey that looks at two core areas of Society work – meetings and journals – with a view to understanding what types of meetings and events you would like to see us host, and how we can build on the outstanding reputation of our journals to provide further and improved support for those wishing to publish their latest research. If you have thoughts on these topics, or any other suggestions on how we can improve the BPS, please start to think about this now, and get involved by completing the survey once it goes live.

Of course, you do not have to wait for us to ask to tell us what you’re thinking. My inbox is always open, and I hope you will continue to share your thoughts and ideas for how the Society can achieve our goals.

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