JING training event 2024

January saw the exciting kickoff of our expanded Junior Investigator’s Training Program, with an annual training event in Manchester. The network was pleased to welcome 55 junior investigators into our 2024 cohort, and we were joined by many of our experimental cancer medicine centre (ECMC) leads and faculty, as well as wonderful patient representatives who gave their time to share their stories and provide valuable insight into their clinical trial experience.

The two-day event began with a welcome to the ECMC network and an overview of our capabilities by our interim Head of the ECMC programme office, Graham Cadwallader. This was followed by a highly informative statistics overview from The Institute of Cancer Research’s (ICR) Professor Christina Yap, with our cohort then moving into breakout groups to discuss various research interests with relevant members of faculty.

Glasgow ECMC’s Professor Anthony Chalmers then led a discussion of the PARADIGM trial, a study investigating the effects of radiotherapy and Olaparib for people affected with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

We then moved into a fantastic conversation with our funding panel, comprised of Graham Cadwallader, Peter Thompson (Director of NIHR Academy Programmes), Professor Sarah Brown (member of Cancer Research UK's Clinical Research Committee) and Professor Ruth Plummer (Chair of MRC’s Experimental Medicine Panel).

Our jam-packed day continued with sessions on working with industry and working with clinical trials units run by Dr Emma Searle (Manchester), Dr Charlotte Pawlyn (ICR) and Professor Gareth Griffiths (Southampton). Our cohort then moved into 'Meet the Expert' sessions, followed by a study design task to close out the day.

We welcomed our trainees to the second day with a morning of patient and public involvement (PPI) discussions. Led by Patrick Macguire (PPI contributor), Alison Reeve (Senior Patient Involvement Officer - Research) and Professor Ruth Plummer, our cohort was provided with the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of patient involvement and the value that this involvement will add to their work.

The Junior Investigator’s event closed with an afternoon of study idea presentations from our cohort, which provided our trainees with individualised feedback on proposed potential study ideas.

We are very excited to offer our trainees an expanded year-long program, providing support and a community within the ECMC to set them up to be the next generation of thriving cancer researchers. The Programme office is hugely grateful for the contributions of our ECMC leads, faculty, steering committee and PPI representatives for facilitating such a successful event. We look forward to the coming year’s activities.

For more information regarding our Junior Investigator’s program, please contact the programme office: ecmcadmin@cancer.org.uk