Earlier this month, members of our research team – academic and professional – were in London for the Discovery Research Platforms Summit 2026 hosted by Wellcome.
Held at the iconic Royal College of Physicians, the Summit brought together researchers and staff from Wellcome’s eight Discovery Research Platforms to share insights on the initial years of their awards and explore new connections and collaborations.
Our contribution to this event, included:
- A session introducing participants to discovery research in the arts, humanities and social sciences via a focus on some of the sites and spaces in which this work takes place – The Archive, The Lab, The GP Practice and The Community.
- Louise Creechan’s participation in the panel on ‘Advancing EDI’. Louise highlighted some of the schemes and initiatives we have within our Platform to support the development of inclusive research culture and diversify the perspectives that contribute to medical humanities research, including our multi-directional peer mentorship scheme, our EDI group, our Bridging Fellows scheme and Medical Humanities in Practice Fellowships for researchers from the health and voluntary sectors. She also shared insights and reflections on the production of accessible and inclusive large-scale events, drawn from the learning from our pioneering Critical Neurodiversity Studies conference.
- Angela Woods’ reflections in the final panel discussion on ‘The Value and Challenges of Inter– and Trans–disciplinary Research.’ Angela emphasized the transformative power and value arts, humanities and social science approaches bring to our understanding of health and illness, in a world where health challenges cannot fully be addressed by science alone. She also spoke about how Platforms could address some of the challenges – infrastructural, institutional, logistical as well as existential – of doing interdisciplinary research in contemporary Universities.
It was a privilege for us to connect with the other Discovery Research Platform teams, and to share learning and reflections from the highlights and challenges of the first few years of the awards. We look forward to continuing the conversation and exploring more synergies in cross-Platform discovery research in the future.
Thank you to Wellcome for their generosity in hosting this event.
