By Dr Jocelyn LeBlanc, Impact Analyst, AMRC

Published: 16 January 2019

With over 140 members spread across the UK, we aim to support our members in a variety of different ways so that there’s something for everyone. To wrap up the last financial (2017-18) year we created an infographic to show the ways that we have supported and represented our members. Who doesn’t love some good old-fashioned data?

Keeping you up-to-date

Horizon scanning is a pastime for us. We collate news relevant to the sector and send out regular updates. In total we circulated 54 newsletters over the year, including:

• 26 Member Briefing newsletters
• 12 Research Manager’s Working Group newsletters
• 12 Policy and Public Affairs Working Group newsletters
• 4 Quarterly Impact Reports

We also published 47 blogs written by the AMRC team, member charities and partner organisations. These blogs are a place where we can take a deeper dive into interesting topics, sharing examples of best practice, elaborating on projects or sharing experiences and challenges that others could learn from. All blogs can be found here.

Bringing people together

We learn best from each other and often having a network of peers is key to overcoming obstacles and getting fresh ideas. We coordinated 11 working groups and networks that 108 member charities were actively involved in. In total, 566 people from our membership participated in these groups to collaborate, share learning and network with others who share similar interests.

You can find out more about our communities and groups here. There’s truly something for everyone, with groups focusing on communication, data, digital, impact, research management, policy and public affairs and more.

Ensuring your voices were heard

AMRC provides a strong collective voice for the sector and we use this to campaign to make the UK the best possible environment for medical research. We submitted 13 consultation responses on behalf of our members in order to ensure charities have a say in important decisions.

These consultation responses were submitted to bodies such as parliamentary committees, government departments, NIHR and NHS England. Some topics included the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, Brexit, the Autumn Budget and supporting research in the NHS. You can find all past and current consultation responses here.

Showing off your work

Our members fund ground-breaking research and are always embarking on new initiatives that move the sector into new territory. Through 119 case studies showcasing the work of at least 54 different member charities, we highlighted these achievements and spread the word about the activities of the sector. These case studies were included in our sector impact report, spotlight reports, policy documents and other reports.

Making “impact” a less intimidating word

Charities are under immense pressure to demonstrate how the research they fund makes a difference for patients. We supported 60 member charities in measuring and demonstrating their impact through a variety of ways.

• We helped our members to use Researchfish for collecting impact data through a deal with MRC and Researchfish and through our AMRC Researchfish working group.
• We created an impact framework by defining five areas of medical research impact in our sector impact report and featured examples of impact from 40 of our member charities in the report.
• We communicated the impact of the sector through our sector impact report, animation, spotlight reports and policy work.
• We continued to grow a diverse community of practice through our impact coffee club.

Organising fun (and productive!) events

One of our favourite things to do is bring people together around a particular topic of relevance to share best practice and learn from those who are pushing boundaries. We held a total of 33 events that were attended by 100 of our member charities. These included:

• 21 free events, workshops or meetings attended by 75 member charities.
• 8 paid-for events or workshops attended by 71 member charities.
• 4 CEO events attended by 59 member charities.

We also delivered 8 webinars, attended by 70 member charities, that covered topics like Researchfish, the AMRC Open Research Platform, the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, and other policy updates.

We are looking forward to continuing to support you in all these different ways (and more!) in the new year. We always appreciate feedback and suggestions so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

You can find a summary of the stats in this blog in ‘Our year in numbers’ infographic.