Reflecting on 2025: a year of change for the RSB

There were many changes and memorable moments at the RSB throughout 2025.

In September we said goodbye to Dr Mark Downs FRSB who was Chief Executive of the RSB for 16 years and welcomed Dr Doug Brown FRSB into the post.

We rolled out our new brand and website, moved to being a remote-based organisation, and celebrated our most successful Biology Week to date.

We also learned of the tragic news of our former colleague's death, Alessandro Coatti, in April.

Accreditation & Professional Affairs

The Accreditation team completed its five-year review of the accreditation criteria. Updates were made to better reflect the current higher education landscape, including emerging topics such as AI, and to refine the wording for a more streamlined process. A new set of assessment-related criteria was also introduced.

On 10 April 2025, the RSB hosted its annual Accreditation Conference and Awards Ceremony, sharing good practice from accredited institutions and gathering feedback on the updated accreditation criteria. The awards ceremony, held at the House of Commons, celebrated 20 newly accredited and reaccredited institutions and 84 top project award winners.

Training & Registers

Defra funding and related work

This year the professional development team secured funding from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) in partnership with Fera Science Ltd. The funding (over £500,000 across four years) supports the newly launched Plant Health Professional Development Award, expanded Plant Health Undergraduate Studentships, and continued plant health professional development activity.

 

Trainee QP conference

In collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the first Trainee Qualified Person (QP) conference covered becoming an eligible QP, managing stress, and avoiding burnout. The joint professional bodies plan to re-run this conference biennially.

Dr Louise Leong FRSB, RSB Honorary Treasurer, at the Accreditation Awards ceremony on 10 April 2025 at the House of Commons, London

Client Services

The External Membership Services Team completed its 10th year servicing 13 individual societies totalling over 10,000 individual members collectively during this period.

The team continued to provide secretariat support for the Heads of University Biosciences (HUBS), a special interest group of the RSB. The 2025 HUBS Annual Meeting took place at Coventry University, featuring many engaging talks, including from Professor Ian Dunn and Professor Quintin McKellar. The winner of this year's Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year was also announced.

The Society continued to make available its in-house software to external clients under contract; further allowing two other learned societies, with 15,000 members collectively, to benefit from this RSB innovation.

Communications & Public Affairs

We celebrated our 14th Biology Week in October, reaching and engaging hundreds of schools across the UK and around the world with the biosciences. Highlights of the week included a best-ever total of 123 events and activities. These included a member-exclusive talk given by Professor Lady Sue Black Hon FRSB, a trip to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, prizes awarded to our various competition winners, and the Minister for Nature, Mary Creagh MP CBE, joined our Biology Week reception to celebrate the winners of our BioArtAttack competition 2025, celebrating the 50th anniversary of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) with the theme of endangered species.

We also co-hosted the Signs of Spring citizen science survey for a second year with the Field Studies Council. The survey looks at key spring indicators during the first few months of the year and tracks the effects of the climate crisis on their emergence. The survey is continuing again this year.

Other highlights included:

• Rolling out our new brand and new website.
• Joining Bluesky.
• Our landmark annual parliamentary events — Voice of the Future, STEM for BRITAIN, and Parliamentary Links Day — which were well attended. STEM for BRITAIN saw one of our members, Anneliese Hodge MRSB, win the gold prize.

RSB Chief Executive Dr Doug Brown FRSB, Sarah Girasoli (winner of School Biology Teacher of the Year 2025), and RSB President, Professor Sir Ian Boyd FRSB

Education Policy

The RSB has established a Teaching Policy Network, to sit alongside its Teaching Policy Advisory Group. The group and network will feed directly into RSB policy work, giving teachers an opportunity to engage with policy development in relation to areas including curriculum, qualifications, and teacher recruitment. In Wales, the RSB was invited to give oral evidence at the Senedd as part of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee inquiry on teacher recruitment and retention, and continues to work with the Welsh Government on their new Strategic Education Workforce Plan.

In all four devolved nations, the team has had significant impact and involvement in curriculum and qualification reform. We have published several news stories inhouse and externally, responding to announcements on curriculum reform and putting forward recommendations based on Evolving 5 – 19 Biology. We have also established a curriculum and qualifications email update to keep members of our committees up to date on this fast-paced area of work. The Society has been working with partners across all school subjects on making a case for strengthening climate change and sustainability in the school curriculum.

RSB Senior Education Policy Officer, Shabana Brightley, at Senedd Cymru 

Membership & Events

Membership

Free membership for students on accredited programmes led to over 3,000 student affiliates and over 150 AMRSBs joining and BioNet membership grew by 1,857 members.

An in-person Member Organisation (MO) networking event took place after the AGM on 21 May with over 30 attendees from 18 different MOs. The event provided an interactive space for MO representatives to connect with each other and the RSB Membership and Science Policy teams to explore shared policy interests.

Other highlights included:

• Many of our Fellows were recognised in both the 2025 New Year Honours and King's Birthday Honours.
• The Top Student Award continues to grow free AMRSB membership, with 83 students awarded this year.
• Our Travel Grants garnered huge success this year. £10,000 was awarded to recipients of these grants, enabling them to attend conferences, workshops, and carry out research without the cost of travel being a barrier.

Events

The Events team coordinated a host of in-person and online events throughout the year, most notably the daily events throughout Biology Week – including the first Biology Week event in Scotland.

The team also delivered:

• A new series of member-exclusive webinars (with topics including forensic anthropology, dinosaur locomotion, and the UK Biobank).
• The CEO Farewell & Welcome.
• The largest ever AGM with over 400 in attendance. 

Publications

The first title in the RSB’s children’s science duology was published. Your Expert Guide: The Human Body for Young Scientists, produced in partnership with publisher Franklin, Watts, and Wayland is aimed at readers age 8+. Together with the upcoming Your Expert Guide: Biology for Young Scientists, it explores key topics through clear, engaging text and thoughtfully designed illustrations. Each biology title supports early science education by introducing foundational concepts aligned with the RSB’s 5-19 curriculum goals, making them suitable for both classroom use and independent reading.

The Biologist’s most popular new articles online this year included one on ‘taxonomic trolling’ — the problem of taxonomists giving species annoying or divisive species names — and an article exploring the mysterious cell organelles known as ‘vaults’. Cover articles for our quarterly print issue explored the ‘speed of cells’, zombie parasitism, the use of horseshoe crab blood in drug testing, and the fascinating biology of the Greenland shark.

Science Policy

Nature and Climate

Our internal policies were updated to further implement the RSB’s Climate and Nature Strategy. Our support for the National Emergency Briefing in November helped make the case for a step up in awareness and response to the escalating climate and nature crisis, to an audience of over 1,200 people. We responded to Government consultations and parliamentary inquiries on issues including Land Use, Innovation, and Global Food Security. In our partnership with the Natural Capital Initiative, we hosted webinars for those working in policy and research on embedding natural capital in the built environment and halting biodiversity decline in agriculture.

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture

We engaged in the Science Council and Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity and Inclusion Progression Framework – an independent exercise to benchmark how organisations like the RSB are progressing EDI in their communities. Our review of recommendations from the findings will inform further implementation of the RSB’s Biosciences For All (EDIC) Commitments. We also launched the RSB’s pilot EDIC Grant, funded by the UK Society for Extracellular Vesicles, and the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists with four projects planned for delivery in 2026.

Research Landscape

We held a workshop with expert attendees representing the RSB’s membership, and submitted their recommendations in our February representation to the UK Government Spending Review. These called for strategic, long-term investments in research to unlock sustainable economic growth and address threats to national security, health, and the environment. Based on this, we later submitted a response to the Business and Trade Committee inquiry into the Industrial Strategy, making recommendations on how best to support the life sciences sector. We were pleased to see our call for sector-driven discovery research to remain a priority, alongside mission-led translational research, development, and innovation, reflected in the Government's new framework for public research and development (R&D) investment. We also launched 'Biologist of Tomorrow', a collaborative skills analysis of the biosciences, funded by several of our Strategic Partner Member Organisations.

Ethical Biological Innovation and Biological Security

We submitted a response to the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) on technology alternatives to animals in life sciences research. We also submitted evidence to the Animals in Science Committee who will deliver recommendations to policy- and decision-makers on strengthening leading practice in the regulated use of animals in science. In September, we delivered a horizon-scanning event for researchers and policymakers called 'Driving Innovation Responsibly: A New Frontier in Biosecurity' in collaboration with the BBSRC, ahead of subsequent publication of the UKRI statement on research with potential misuse risk. Utilising evidence submitted by our Member Organisations, we provided briefings to the House of Lords, and were cited in the debate over the Consumer Products (Control of Biocides) Bill. We responded to three calls for evidence in this area, including two calls as part of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Parliamentary committee inquiry on animal and plant health.

Looking ahead

In 2026 we will be saying goodbye to our outgoing President Professor Sir Ian Boyd FRSB and welcoming Dame Melanie Welham DBE FRSB. We will be celebrating our 15th Biology Week and aim to continue improving our training, accreditation, and membership offerings. Keep an eye on our website to see how you can get involved.