President’s Newsletter: December 2024

Dear BTS Members,

In my final President’s Newsletter for 2024, I would like to update you on three important initiatives that I highlighted earlier in the year.

First, I am delighted to confirm that we will be submitting a Letter of Intent to EUROTOX in January outlining our proposal to host the EUROTOX 2029 Congress in the UK. We have chosen as the venue the International Conference Centre in Birmingham which not only provides excellent conference facilities but also close proximity to many hotels and a great venue for the Congress gala dinner. We have also worked with the West Midlands Convention Bureau to position Birmingham as a dynamic, diverse and ambitious city with many opportunities for delegates and guests to enjoy its cultural, dining and sporting facilities. The city also has excellent transport links from Europe as well as other parts of the UK, and is in easy reach of many of our centres of excellence in toxicology, including of course the University of Birmingham. I should like to take this opportunity to thank the BTS EUROTOX 2029 Advisory Group who have worked with me in preparing our bid; Susy Brescia, Tim Gant, Frances Hill, Kate Jones, Haz Matar, Shirley Price, Fiona Sewell, Heather Wallace and Anne Willis. We will of course keep you informed of progress during 2025 but the final decision will not be known until next September.

The second update concerns my commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion which I set out in my President’s Newsletter in April. I said then that we would reach out to all our members to seek your views on what EDI means to you and how you think the Society could further enhance its EDI culture. The Executive Committee (EC) asked Winston Morgan, our EDI Coordinator, to lead on this and he is now being supported by a Working Group of BTS members which has been asked to look at options for engaging with the widest possible representation of our membership. I apologise that this is taking a little longer than we had anticipated but we are planning to review the Working Group’s latest proposal for a survey at our January EC meeting and to then be in a position to give you a further update on next steps.

Finally, on behalf of the BTS Skills Gap Advisory Board and Steering Team, I should like to thank all those who have been attending and supporting Module 1 of the Skills Gap Initiative. Module 1 has been very successful and a range of modules is being prepared for 2025/26. Registrations will open soon for those modules scheduled for 2025.  A draft programme can be found > Here.

One additional thing for me to remind you about is that we would be delighted to receive nominations for the  EUROTOX Awards- https://www.eurotox.com/annual-congress-awards/.  These nominations need to be considered initially by the BTS and the closing date for us to receive them is very soon –Monday  9th December at 17.00.

I should now like to wish you all an enjoyable holiday season and a Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing many of you in Liverpool for our Annual Congress on 7th– 9th May.

Phil

Dr Phil Botham
President of the BTS