Biochemical Society's impact in 2024
Our activities throughout 2024 enabled us to achieve our mission to be at the forefront of advancing the molecular biosciences.
Set out in our current strategy, our core objectives and strong EDI principles influence and inspire our activities throughout the year, from grants and awards to events and publishing. In 2024, we celebrated many achievements and milestones with our community and will be reflecting on some of the highlights below.
News from 2024
In 2024 we said goodbye to members of staff and our committees, including Kate Baillie, CEO of the Biochemical Society and MD of Portland Press, who had been in post for over 12 years. We also wished the very best to Professor Sheila Graham and Professor Michelle West who stepped down from their roles in 2024.
Community
We engage with our community throughout all our activities, providing support and opportunities. In 2024, our membership increased by 8.6% and we continued to support our ambassadors and the ECR community, providing opportunities to network and share knowledge. Through our public engagement activities, we continue to inspire the next generation and our attendance at the ICR Careers evening allowed us to reach 50 A-Level students from local schools, with 90% saying they felt inspired to follow a career in science.
Grants
Every year we offer a range of grants and bursaries to our community of members and non-members. In 2024, we’re proud to announce we awarded over £400,000 to support research, attendance at scientific conferences, and the sponsorship of events. With 40% of grants awarded to students and 27% to ECRs, our grants provided support for every career stage in 2024.
Awards
We were honoured to recognise 14 prestigious winners in the Biochemical Society 2024 Awards. Following the introduction of a new streamlined nominations process, we also announced five new categories including, the ‘Early Career’ and ‘Established Educator’ Teaching Excellence Award, Research Support Award, and the Biochemical Society Award for ‘Significant Breakthrough or Achievement’ and ‘Sustained Excellence’.
In 2024 we announced our 2025 winners, who you can read more about in our news item.
Webinars
We held 15 webinars as part of our dedicated Biochemistry Focus webinar series throughout 2024. Our YouTube channel allows each webinar to be viewed on-demand and since its launch has amassed over 65,000 views, across 120 countries.
Events
Our varied event programme showcased 24 events in 2024, including 9 scientific meetings, 3 Harden Conferences, and 12 online and in-person training events. We were delighted to offer networking and collaboration opportunities to over 1.7k attendees spanning 59 countries.
Journals
Our publishing arm works to support researchers and institutions, returning all profits to the Society, facilitating its charitable activities. Our team work tirelessly to get accepted papers out into the community, and in 2024 we accomplished a median acceptance to publication time of 17 days across our journals.
