Early Career Pharmacologists Advisory Group (ECPAG) update: Looking ahead from 2019 to 2022

Our Annual Flagship Meeting, Pharmacology 2019, was a fantastic showcase of all things Scottish, Pharmacology and Early Career Pharmacologists!

The Early Career Pharmacologists Advisory Group (ECPAG) took the fantastic opportunity to kick-off the meeting by organising and chairing the first session, Developing Networks to Support Wellbeing Throughout Your Career. This session explored different approaches to building networks and support systems that can aid career development. Those who came along at 8am heard diverse perspectives from Professor Steve Hill, Professor Jane Mitchell, Professor Lisa Wallace and me (Dr Aiden Seeley) about our experiences, what individuals can do for themselves, and how the British Pharmacological Society can support wellbeing in careers. This session highlights the important role that early career members play in the Society: we are not simply bystanders, we are active decision-makers. Throughout the meeting, early career members were presenting their work, chairing sessions and helping deliver a very successful annual meeting. This year, we even had an A-Level Student Prize for the first time ever, awarded to Travis Poulton for his work on synthesising novel anti-inflammatory drugs.

Overall, Pharmacology 2019 marked an amazing end to the first year of my term as Chair of ECPAG, allowing time to reflect on the achievements of our early career members, and ECPAG, in 2019.

I am extremely proud of the work ECPAG has done in a short period. This year was extremely successful due to the mentorship and encouragement of our President Emeritus Prof. Steve Hill and our (now) former CEO, Jono Bruun. They have championed early career pharmacologists and played an essential role in bringing early career pharmacologists to the forefront of the Society. They will be missed by ECPAG and we thank you for your contribution over the years.

A lasting legacy of the collaboration between ECPAG and the Society as a whole is the first-ever ECPAG Vision (2019–2021), which was launched at Pharmacology 2019. ECPAG is the first branch within the Society to develop a Vision, outlining our aims and objectives from 2019 to 2022. This has been a massive collaboration between ECPAG, Society staff, the Policy and Engagement Committee and Council.

The ECPAG Vision 2019–2021 has an overarching goal: To work towards having early career pharmacologists voices represented and heard efficiently in all aspects of the pharmacology community – both within the Society and beyond. The Vision closely mirrors the Society’s Five Year Strategy, with sections such as Our Guiding Principles, Our Mission, Our Objectives and How We Will Deliver our Vision.

Importantly, this Vision acts to ensure that ECPAG:

  • delivers its mandate of representing our Early Career Membership, which makes up 52% of the total membership
  • ​works with the Society to deliver its Five Year Strategy and advance the discipline of pharmacology as a whole
  • remains future-proof, undergoing continuous evaluation and development to ensure the voices of early career members are heard within the Society and the broader community.

Click here to read the Vision in full.

Being an early career member within the Society has never been more exciting. We are currently embarking on a 2-year strategic partnership with the European Laboratory Research and Innovation Group (ELRIG); there are a number of exciting collaborations on the cards that will benefit early career members (keep a lookout for these as they are announced!). The Society will also be hosting the World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology 2022 in Glasgow, and already discussions around early career member involvement are in progress. Using our Vision (2019–2021), we hope to further develop ECPAG and early career involvement in the Society over the coming years.

Importantly, the Vision highlights that early career pharmacologists are not only the future of pharmacology but can be the drivers of change within the Society and the pharmacology community as a whole right now.

As Chair of ECPAG, I cannot wait to see what is coming in the near future! I hope to see you at one of our meetings. In the meantime, if you would like to be involved with ECPAG, please get in touch with Dr Sorrel Bunting (Sorrel.Bunting@bps.ac.uk) or Dr Aidan Seeley (Aidan.Seeley@Swansea.ac.uk).

 
 

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Published: 02 Apr 2020
Category: Meetings update

About the author

Aidan Seeley



Aidan was the inaugural recipient of the Society's Equality, Diversity & Inclusion prize, sponsored by AstraZeneca, and is a member of the Inclusive Pharmacology Education Steering Group. He is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Pharmacology at Swansea University Medical School. Aidan is also the current Chair of the Early Career Pharmacologists Advisory Group and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.

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