The BioMedEng Association is a not-for-profit organisation that advances education and knowledge transfer in Biomedical Engineering, Medical Engineering and Bioengineering. Under a variety of similar names, the organisation has held the annual UK bioengineering conference for over ten (10) years. These meetings have grown to become the UK’s largest gathering of Biomedical Engineers, Medical Engineers and Bioengineers.
About the conference series
The conference was initiated in 2008 at Imperial College London as ‘Bioengineering08’, since there was not a UK conference suitable for the breadth of academic bioengineering research being conducted at the time.
It has been held every year since then – at the University of Oxford (3x), University of Nottingham (1x), Leeds University (1x), Strathclyde University (1x), Queen Mary University London (1x), King’s College London (1x), and Imperial College London (4x).
It was hosted at Imperial College in 2014 as ‘MECBioeng14’, following a rebranding to include the annual meetings of the EPSRC/Wellcome Trust Medical Engineering Centres. It was subsequently held at the University of Oxford in 2015, University of Leeds in 2016 and King’s College London in 2017.In order to be as inclusive as possible and cover all areas of the ever-growing discipline, the conference was rebranded in 2018 to start the BioMedEng series.
The conference delivers an extensive scientific programme that combines plenary lectures by world class expects from Industry and Academia, with keynote addresses from leading academics. It also includes a series of oral and poster presentations from students and Early Career Researchers and a range of interesting workshops. The workshops allow an in-depth exploration of subject specific topics as well as the opportunity to engage the community with panel discussions on topics including – translating research beyond academia, celebrating the contributions of women in changing the innovation landscape in the UK, research funding support for Early Career Researchers, amongst others.
About the Association
The conferences have been an excellent opportunity to bring the UK Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering and Medical Engineering community together, and share advances in the discipline. Beyond the successful conferences we have optimised and formalised our processes in order to build and support the ever-increasing community further.
We initially formed the BioMedEng Council, comprised of leading academics from 20 different UK universities and institutions that offer qualifications in the discipline, to serve as the leadership unit and steering committee of the formal body. We have also developed an extensive governing document which has been approved by the Charity Commission to serve as the legal framework for promoting the study and practice of the discipline. We have also introduced a strategic bidding process that allows the conference to be hosted by other engineering departments and universities across the UK.
Officials of the BioMedEng Association include:
- Chair – Professor Anthony Bull,
- Treasurer – Prof Hazel Screen
- Secretary – Dr Gifty Tetteh