This year, the RSB’s Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday 21 May 2025 at the Geological Society at Burlington House, London as well as online. Among the highlights were updates provided by the RSB’s Chief Executive, approval of the 2023-2024 finances, and this year’s Charter Lecture.

The AGM was chaired by Professor Sir Ian Boyd FRSB, President of the Royal Society of Biology, now entering his final year in the role.

Dr Mark Downs CBiol CSci FRSB began by acknowledging the loss of former RSB colleague Alessandro Coatti who died tragically earlier this year.

Mark then moved on to highlight key points of the RSB’s activity over the last year. We have now rolled out our new five-year business plan as of January with a refreshed mission, vision, and values, and launched our new brand.

It was a positive year for Parliamentary and public engagement with further funding from the Worshipful Company of Horners to support our Gopher Science lab days, competitions continuing to engage the education community, and with the bioscience category at this year’s STEM for BRITAIN event being won by a member of the RSB being some of the highlights.

The Biologist continues to be our premium publication, we announced our partnership with Hachette on an upcoming series of children’s books, and we have continued to provide responses to Parliamentary and Government consultations over the past year on our Science Policy and Education Policy priorities.

Mark also stated the importance of membership underpinning the RSB’s work. Our membership has now grown to over 26,000 individual members – with strong retention rates at key FRSB and MRSB grades – and 80 Member Organisations. Regional events grants were introduced in place of regional branch activity and more member-exclusive events and offerings are in development.

We continue to offer organisation support through our Client Services and are increasingly developing our training offering, particularly in running laboratory based courses. We have awarded accreditation at 70% of eligible UK institutions and 15 international institutions across six continents. 

Looking ahead, Mark stated that the RSB will continue with the new five-year strategy, and have moved to being an organisation based mainly around remote working. We will continue to host the annual Biology Week from 11-19 October 2025. Mark also gave thanks for the generous legacies we received in the last few years, gave some of his personal reflections on his time as Chief Executive over the last 16 years, and thanked his colleagues – past and present.

This was Mark’s final AGM as he will be retiring at the end of the summer and Dr Doug Brown will be taking over the role as Chief Executive in September.

Afterwards, Dr Louise Leong FRSB, Honorary Treasurer of the RSB, took to the podium to present a summary of the annual report and an overview of the RSB’s finances, which was followed by a Q&A.

RSB Council update

Emeritus Professor Claire Wathes FRSB then announced she is stepping down as Honorary Secretary. Paul Gemmill FRSB will take over this role in addition to taking over the Membership and Professional Affairs Committee, while Dr Leong remains in post as Honorary Treasurer. Professor Dame Melanie Welham DBE FRSB is now President-elect and will officially step into the role of President next year.

Professor Yvonne Barnett FRSB and Dr Suzy Moody MRSB stepped down from Council and Professor Kalai Mathee FRSB and Professor Tim Coulson FRSB have come into post. Lucy Hudson MRSB was elected for a second term, meanwhile Professor Hilary MacQueen FRSB completed her second term and Professor Jeremy Pritchard FRSB was newly appointed. Our thanks go to all our outgoing and incoming Council members.

This year’s Charter Lecture was then given by Professor Daniel M Davis MBE FMedSci FRSB which focused on immune health and how our genes affect how we respond to pathogens.

A lunch was then provided at the Geological Society with the opportunity to network with fellow members.