A quiet moment in the wake of the Bank Holiday allows me to do a quick post to draw you attention to two pieces of work – one completed, the other ongoing – here at AMRC.

The first is a report of a seminar we held with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills  in February. At this event, a group of member charities discussed international competitiveness in medical and health research and how the UK shaped up in terms of its international standing.  Excuse the brevity of the report.  However, even if you get no further than the headlines some clear messages will be apparent.  In particular the importance of the NHS to the UK’s leadership in research.  Andrew Lansley et al take note!

I don’t know about you but one of the things I have always been fascinated when taking in a bit of art is not necessarily the finished master but the sketches or stories that lie behind its development.  Don’t get me wrong, Constable’s Haywain is a great picture.  But, more intriguing is the different picture that might lie behind it or the details he changed such as painting out the haymaker’s iPhone.

It’s with this in mind that I am very excited about the other piece of work underway here called ‘Ways and Means.’  At the end of it we hope to produce a visual ‘master’ of collaborations involving medical research charities.  But also, based on the interviews we will do with our members, garner some insight into how these partnerships happen, the factors that lead to their success (or not);  food for thought for those thinking of doing some sort of tie-up with another organisation in the future.

We were very lucky to win an ESRC internship to do this work with us and we have an outstanding person working on the project as I speak.  But we’ve already produced a preliminary sketch that you can find on the website – sneak preview posted here.

A Michelangelo in the making or is that taking it too far?