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The conference is now fully booked but if you would like to attend, please email Stephen Webster (stephen.webster@imperial.ac.uk) and ask to be put on the waiting list.

The Good Science Project welcomes you to its third research culture conference, themed on the issue of ‘failure in science’. The conference is a collaboration between 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and Nature magazine.

All scientists know that failure is a constant in their work. Yet its creative value, its institutional issues, and its claims on our well-being all remain under-discussed. You are therefore invited to an all-day conference, to hear from experts, share experiences, and come away with new thoughts on the role of failure in the life scientific.

The conference is jointly convened by 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature. It is funded by Research England. The event will be opened by Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, co-presenter of Sky At Night, and lecturer at this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

10:00 Registration and Coffee

10:30 Conference welcome, with Dr Stephen Webster (911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ) and Dr Magdalena Skipper (Nature)

10:45ÌýOpening comments by Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

11:05 Panel: ‘Perspectives on failure in science’. With Professor Mary Ryan CBE, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College; Emeritus Professor Andrew Stirling, Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex; Dr Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief, Nature magazine; and Professor Melanie Stefan, Medical School Berlin. Chaired by Professor Jem Woods, director of the Centre for Environmental Policy, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.

12:15 BREAK

12:30 ‘A taxonomy of failure‘. With Maria Portela, Pablo Prieto-Roca, Dr Alena Vdovchenko, Dr Andrea Fantuzzi, Dr Marc Baguelin, Dr Liva Donina and Dr Nana-Marie Lemm. Chaired by Professor George Constantinides, Director of the Early Career Researcher Institute, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.

13:10 LUNCH

14:15 Five parallel sessions:

1. Failure and Education (LT 308). With Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, scientist and broadcaster; Dr Wayne Mitchell, Associate Provost (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College; and Professor Camille Howson, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship (CHERS), 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College. Chaired by Dr Mark Pope, Senior Teaching Fellow in Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.
2. Failure and Innovation (LT 311). With Emeritus Professor Andrew Stirling, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex; Alex Glassbrook, barrister and legal expert on autonomous vehicles, Temple Garden Chambers; Dr Joanne Hackett, Vice-President and Head of Health System Services at IQVIA, past Chief Commercial Officer at Genomics England; and Dr Angelo Amorelli, past Senior Vice-President BP and current non-executive director of Gevo. Chaired by Dr Nejra Van Zalk, Associate Professor in Design Psychology, Dyson School of Design Engineering, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.
3. Failure and Power (LT 144). With Professor Patricia Kingori, ETHOX Centre, University of Oxford; Dr Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief Nature magazine; and Shomari Lewis-Wilson, lead of the Equitable Research Ecosystem team at Wellcome. Chaired by Dr Stephen Webster, lead of the Good Science Project.
4. Failure and Expertise (LT 340). With Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education and engagement sciences, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College and author of Expert (Penguin Books); Ruth Morgan, professor of crime and forensic services, UCL; David Gordon, harpsichordist, jazz pianist and mathematician; and Richard Wingate, professor of developmental neurobiology, KCL.
5. Failure and a Career in Science (LT 145). With Jack Leeming, Chief Careers Editor, Nature magazine; Dr Nessa Carey, Faculty of Medicine, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College; and Dr Alex Richardson, Research Associate, School of Public Health, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College. Chaired by David Payne, Managing Editor Careers and Supplements, Nature magazine.

Conference participants will be allocated to the parallel sessions a week before the conference.

15:40: TEA

16:15ÌýPlenary Session. With Professor Richard Wingate, Professor of Developmental Neurobiology and Director of interdisciplinary science education at King’s College London; Dr Nessa Carey, Faculty of Medicine, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College; and Dr Philip Ball, science writer, historian and columnist. Chaired by Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit, 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.

17:30Ìý¸é±ð³¦±ð±è³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô.ÌýBlackett Terrace

19:00ÌýEND