 I'm delighted to welcome you to the 9th Annual Openness Awards and 85th Stephen Padgett Memorial Lecture, which will be given this evening by Professor Cherry Wainwright. I'm afraid I'm doing this tonight because Jeremy Pearson, our chair, is not well. He sends his apologies and we really hope to see him back on his feet very soon. But I apologise to you all you get me tonight rather than Jeremy. So it's just the one distinguished professor talking to you this evening. The Concordat began its journey, as many of you will remember, about 10 years ago in October, just over 10 years ago, in October 2012, when over 40 organisations involved in bioscience in the UK signed a declaration on openness on animal research. And with that, they committed to developing a Concordat, setting out how they would be more open about the ways in which animals are used in scientific, medical and veterinary research in the UK. For the following year, in 2013, understanding animal research conducted two pieces of public research to reflect and incorporate the views of the public and the wider research community into the Concordat. We held a public dialogue project with Ipsos Moray to understand what people in the UK think constitutes openness and transparency about animal research. And we also held an openness consultation that would guide the final drafting of the Concordat. And then in May 2014, the Concordat on openness was launched with 72 signatories as a publicly accountable pledge to be more open about research involving animals. And nearly nine years later, well actually, yes, nearly nine years later, 127 organisations have now committed to enhancing their animal research communications. And as a chief executive of UAR, I'm always pleased to see the progress that signatories have made every year. And while the last three years have been difficult to put it mildly, it is starting to feel like we're returning to something more like normality. And I know the start of face-to-face communication again has been very welcome, including our first in-person signatories workshop, which we held in May this year. And that's the first one we've had since 2019. And also the restart of many of our signatories' public engagement events. Today we have published the 2022 Concordat report, which I hope you've all got a copy of. If not, please take some on the way out. And in it, you can read about how the signatories are committing to openness. And the report covers the period from May 21 until May 22, a time that still included quite a lot of COVID restrictions and full lockdowns for certain parts of that time. But despite all those disruptions to our daily lives, it is remarkable, I think, to see how signatories have continued to achieve such excellent results. We've seen new webpages, virtual tours, images and videos, all of which make animal research more accessible to the public. And we're seeing signatories becoming bolder with their communications and using social media as well to reach more people. The pandemic's also led to a rise in activism, and with that as well, the spread of misinformation. But Concordat signatories continue to illustrate just how adept our sector is at responding to these misinformation campaigns. Openness has never been so important really for providing the public with the information they need to make up their own minds about the use of animals and science. Signatories should be enormously proud of everything they've achieved in that time, in this time, since the Concordat and also during the pandemic. This year we welcomed five new signatory organisations to the Concordat, and we were delighted that 12 of our original leaders in openness were successful in applying to retain their status. Leaders in openness is the Concordat's way to recognise those signatories that are consistently achieving and embedding good practice. Leaders are only granted this status for three years, so this year saw the first set of re-applications. The next round of leaders in openness nominations will be opening in early 2023 next year, so we really hope to see new applications and re-nominations from those already granted the status and who got it in 2020. This year we were also really thrilled to see another transparency agreement this time in Switzerland, so that brings a total number of global openness commitments to nine. Before we move on to the awards, I would like to take a moment to remember our good friend and colleague, Colin Blake, who sadly died earlier this year. Colin was a staunch supporter of openness and didn't shy away from talking about his work to anyone who would listen really. Colin was the recipient of one of UAR's very first openness awards in 2014, and his bravery in continuing to talk about the importance of research using animals in the face of animal rights extremism was an inspiration to many. Colin was instrumental in the creation of UAR. He had chaired the councils of both the Research Defence Society and the Coalition for Medical Progress before they fused to become UAR, and he chaired the council in its first year. In 2014 he was also, as well as one of our openness awards, he was awarded a knighthood for services to scientific research policy and outreach, and in 2015 he delivered the 79th Stephen Padgett Memorial Lecture, where he discussed the importance of animal research, the three Rs, and the continual development of experimental design in four different areas of neuroscience. I'd like to invite Fiona Fox, Chief Exec of the Science Media Centre, to say a few words in memory of Colin. It's just so lovely to be back at this event. It's a few years and I really missed it. I really enjoy this event. So when I started the Science Media Centre 20 years ago, I knew the big issues the science community wanted us to address were GM, MMR and animal research. On the first two I found doors opening and a community all too aware that they needed to engage more and get their voices heard in the media. Not so with animal research. The very same scientists and press officers who were beating a path to our door to speak out more on GM and MMR were telling me that this was absolutely impossible on animal research because of the extremists. We all know, especially those of us in this room, what things were like back then. Universities and research institutes did not talk about their use of animals. The labs were often hidden away on campus with not even students and academics knowing they were there. The use of an animal model in a study was often removed from press releases. Collectively we did not use the A word. RDS and the new AR and the SMC therefore became very, very firm friends with those few scientists who were bold enough to speak out. Foremost amongst them Colin Blagmore. Colin's boldness in speaking out on animals despite the attacks and threats he and his family faced inspired me and many in this room to be more open ourselves and to fight for openness in the research community. I always remember a conversation with a fellow academic neuroscientist at Oxford who had, along with everyone else at the time, decided not to talk about his use of animals. He called to offer his services to the SMC explaining how after hearing news of another attack on Colin he had stayed up late into the night with his wife and family discussing his silence and they all agreed that he could no longer leave Colin to fight this alone. I learned some new phrases from the communications people in those early days that irritated me at the time, especially when I got to know Colin, Nancy Rothwell, Roger Lemon, Clive Page, Tipua Zees and a handful of others who spoke out back then. These very senior commons officers explained to me that they could not speak out about their animal research out of the duty of care for the scientists that they represented. But what about the duty of care for Professor Blakemore and others? And how did allowing misleading media reports about the mistreatment of love animals to go unanswered show care to their scientists? When they got exasperated with me, they would often say but it's okay for you Fiona, you won't be the one that ends up with a bomb under your car. But this also irritated me and it wasn't fair. It was people like Colin and Max Headley and the others who had chosen to speak out despite the threats and attacks and actually a Max's case, a bomb under his car. I often ended up getting cross about this but interestingly Colin never did. He fought for openness in a measured and gentle way. He was prepared to do the two-minute interviews on Sky News, LBC, Five Live When Needed but also took the issue as an intellectual argument and seemed to relish debates with opponents such as Peter Singer, et cetera. He was so convinced of the strength of his arguments and the case for animal research that he'd often sought out media interest, keen to ensure that the public and policy makers were not only hearing from those who deliberately distorted the truth. He was very proud of his involvement in the Boyd Group which brought together all sides to discuss and thrash out these issues. Critically, he was never someone who blindly defended all animal research. For Colin, openness meant just that, not spin or key messages or PR but being open about every aspect of animal research including the many limitations and problems. Colin was also our friend, wasn't he? To so many of us in this room. He was very eminent, a very busy scientist but he was invited to every RDS and UAR event and he came to many. He drank with us, he hung out with us and if there was ever a party or even better an after party with dancing, he was there on the dance floor with bells on. There is a lot of hyperbole about public figures who die but I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Colin inspired the openness movement that completely transformed the culture in science. He was leading the charge for openness way before myself or Wendy or many in this room. He did it before there was strength in numbers and he did it in spite of a lack of support from his university or government. Thankfully he did live to see the openness he championed to become the norm in the Concordat and UAR's great successes and it was a privilege to be asked by Wendy a few years ago to present him with the inaugural UAR openness report. Colin also never felt as he justifiably could have done that he had done his bit and it was now for others. Only a few years ago I was failing badly to find a scientist to speak to the news media during silly season when animal rights activists had managed to get a completely sensational story into the news about the use of dogs in research in Cardiff. Cardiff University did brilliantly but they had no one to put up for interview and UAR and ourselves had loads of requests from broadcasters. By then Colin wasn't even in the UK he was working in Hong Kong and a long way from the UK media scene but when he realised how desperate I was he agreed to do Sky, LBC and several other interviews rather than leave an empty chair in the studio. I'll finish with my favourite story which you've all doubtless heard but it just sums up Colin so well. I still remember vividly the morning I was sitting up in bed with my mug of tea listening to the Today programme as I have done for about 40 years. On came Colin Blakemore to lambast the government after a leaked memo revealing that a knighthood for him had been blocked by senior civil servants because of his outspoken support for vivid section. Colin's message delivered live on Today was crystal clear unless a representative from government came out that day to express the government's backing for bioscience and animal research he would resign his post as head of the MRC before the day was out. I instantly, still in bed, still in my pyjamas called my friend Caroline Davidge head of media at the MRC to effusively congratulate her on a bold and brilliant media strategy. There was a stony silence at the other end of the phone. I had absolutely no idea he was going to do it Fiona and no one at the MRC did. Needless to say, by the end of the Today programme there was a junior minister defending the use of animals in research. There will never be anyone quite like Colin but his legacy is in this room and all of those people who are still fighting the fight for openness and the triumph of openness that we celebrate every year at the UAR awards. Thank you so much Fiona and you talk about legacy and we've actually got an announcement that we're really delighted about that in memory of Colin and with funding from the Biomedical Research Education Trust we're going to be launching the Sir Colin Blakemore Memorial Award in 2023 and this award will recognise an individual from a signatory organisation to the Concordat who's worked to improve public understanding of how and why animals are used in the UK. We're an individual rather than for the organisation and we hope that the award will inspire researchers, animal care staff, communications professionals and any others to enter and more information will follow in the spring and the first win will be announced at this event next December so we're delighted about that. I'd like to thank our sponsors for their support and for their support this evening for paying for your drinks basically and thank you very much everybody and I'd also like to thank the judging committee for their time and their thoughtful deliberations. They ensure that the awards encompass many facets of openness and meet the aims of the Concordat. I'd like to obviously make a big thank you to every signatory of the Concordat their continued hard work to embed best practice in their communications means the continued success of the Concordat and the pushing of new boundaries and openness around animal research and finally for this little part I'd like to say a big thank you to the UAR team today and every day. Thank you very much everybody and without further ado we will start the Openness Award so I'd like to invite Jeremy Wainwright who's tonight's Padgett Lecturer to present the first award. Thank you very much. Our first award goes to a university with an excellent series of animal research webpages and a well-developed openness programme which has been enhanced by a brand new video featuring the day in the life of an animal technician. Led by one of the university's lab technicians the video gives an engaging overview of the facilities, species used and the area of research being studied. While the video itself represents great openness the judging panel were particularly impressed by the sharing and the promotion of the video across social media using a wide variety of platforms. Producing good tailored content for each platform and being brave enough to share it widely is challenging for any large organisation and requiring considerable expertise and effort. The university's considerable efforts are rewarded by the extent to which their video has been watched and shared widely. So congratulations to the University of Manchester for their multi-platform approach to engagement. The second award I'd like to invite Leslie Penny who is director of bio research and veterinary services at the University of Edinburgh for a few more days at least. Until today it was a member of UAR council as well. Thank you. Our next award goes to an institution that does not shy away from talking about its use of animals. While they have received recognition before this year the judges were impressed with the way that high quality examples of openness were embedded throughout their public engagement activities. From patient stories of cancer survivors to technically complex scientific case studies they ensure that the principles of the three Rs and examples of where animals have been used can be found appropriately throughout their public engagement activities. Video interviews on the website include topics that are rarely found in public facing animal research engagement material. For example an open discussion of the limitations of both animal and non-animal experimental models. What set their approach apart this year was their use of Instagram stories to reach a new audience an approach which is both novel and brave. Congratulations to the Francis Crick Institute for their public engagement activities. Thank you. For the third award I'd like to invite Claire Cropcroft. Thank you. Thank you Wendy. It was a real pleasure to serve on council for the last six years and a real privilege to be here in front of you all tonight to announce some winners. This organisation took a bold and sophisticated approach to debate and ethical commentary about animal welfare. The judges felt that they actively welcomed debate rather than stifling it. Changing the narrative around a protest by supporting its principles while showing that there are multiple voices and positions concerned with the use of animals in research was disarming, helpful and above all open. The approach taken appears so simple that the skill involved in shaping this type of communication can be easily unrecognised. This is a highly professional approach developed by an empowered and insightful communication team and they created an excellent news story. Congratulations to the University of Reading for its novel and sophisticated approach to communicating challenging issues. Thank you Claire. And Claire is of course the director of the Thatcher Scholarship programme which I failed to say earlier. And now we have one more award that isn't in your programmes and it's for someone who's been championing openness since well before the Concordat and who was one of the main driving forces behind it. She's going to be taking on a new and exciting challenge from January of next year so this is possibly the last time that she will be with us here at the Openness Awards. I can't wait to see her here again but it's possible that she won't. So I want to take the opportunity to thank her and recognise her really hard work over many many years in support of openness and this award is going to Bella Lear. I don't know about it, she wouldn't be sitting around.