ISPE United Kingdom Emerging Leaders Awards

Globally, the ISPE United Kingdom Affiliate is the only ISPE affiliate to have a dedicated awards program for the Emerging Leaders.

Creating the Award

The awards were created in 2021 by Zam Thahir and Craig Milner, both active members of the ISPE United Kingdom Affiliate. According to Thahir, ISPE United Kingdom Emerging Leaders Chair, “we identified a gap in the awards program. Because only long-serving members of ISPE United Kingdom have traditionally won the awards at the ISPE United Kingdom annual awards dinner, any student or recent graduate had minimal chances of winning. Hence, we set up the Emerging Leaders Awards, where anyone working in the United Kingdom and under the age of 30 are eligible to apply.”

Supporting the Next Generation

The awards have been a tremendous success and have received glowing feedback in terms of promoting our industry and encouraging the next generation of pharmaceu-tical engineers and leaders. The ISPE United Kingdom Affiliate hopes that this initiative drives the younger demographic to become interested in pharma and in ISPE, and benefit from a rewarding career in life sciences and the vast benefits an ISPE membership offers.

EU Hackathon

“The most exciting part of winning the awards are, of course, the prizes,” said Thahir. “And the most popular of the prizes is the fully sponsored trip to the ISPE EU Hackathon held in conjunction with the ISPE Europe Annual Conference.” The EU Hackathon is a weekend-long competition for students and recent grads at the ISPE Europe Annual Conference. Since the Hackathon’s inaugural year in 2021, the ISPE United Kingdom Affiliate has sponsored the winners at future events, including the 2022 ISPE EU Hackathon in Madrid and the 2023 ISPE EU Hackathon in Amsterdam.

The 2024 ISPE EU Hackathon will be in Lisbon, and we encourage students and recent grads to apply for the awards. We are also reaching out to managers, mentors,

and senior members of the industry to encourage their padawans to apply for the award or to make them aware of the awards program. A special student category is also available for those in higher education, internships, and apprenticeships. The application window opens in summer 2023 and will be advertised on the ISPE United Kingdom Emerging Leaders LinkedIn page.

Sponsor

The awards have been made possible due to the generous support of our sponsor, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Swindon, United Kingdom. The ISPE United Kingdom Affiliate and Emerging Leaders are grateful to Mike Potts, Senior Director and General Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific, for his continued support in sponsoring the awards.

Other Ways to Connect

In addition to the awards, the ISPE United Kingdom Emerging Leaders organizes several other events to inspire, connect, and educate the emerging leaders. We have set up a Student Chapter at the University of Leeds and are currently setting up a student chapter at the University of Sheffield. The Student Chapters are a great opportunity to be connected to the industry and to develop one’s professional network at a very early stage in one’s career.

If you are a student, education staff member, recent grad, or apprentice interested in participating or joining the committee, please get in touch with us at emergingleaders@ispeuk.org. We are open to ideas to provide further value to our members and always welcome volunteers for this cause.