ELRIG Research & Innovation discusses how emerging biology and cutting-edge technologies are pioneering the medicines of tomorrow. Bringing together scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs with bold ideas to serve our shared ambitions in creating the next generation of therapeutics to cure more patients around the world. The 2025 R&I meeting – based in London – will focus on cutting edge innovation, comprising the following four main sessions.

ELRIG aims to remove as many barriers to conference attendance as possible, so all events are free to attend and with a prayer room, family room and quiet room available, ensuring our promise of inclusivity is at the heart of all our events.

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Track Information

Day 1 – Monday 10th March

Auditorium 1

Big technology for big molecules

Track Chairs: Marijn Vlaming (CRL) and Arpan Desai (CamGene)

With advanced drug modalities increasing and improving every day, the innovative technologies required to design, optimize and analyze biotherapeutics are advancing quickly. This session will focus on new and innovative technologies that are used for drug discovery and development of biotherapeutic drugs.

Auditorium 2

Big molecules for big problems

Track Chairs: Marijn Vlaming (CRL) and Arpan Desai (CamGene)

The diversity of drug modalities is expanding rapidly, encompassing RNA, cell and gene therapies, PROTACs and many more. These advancements enable unprecedented treatment approaches, such as gene manipulation, protein replacement, and cell replacement. However, aligning the right technology with the appropriate therapeutic strategy is key to unlocking the potenital of these therapies. This session will explore the innovative potential of these large molecules in treating diseases, the hurdles in their development, and the transformative impact they can have on modern medicine. Join us to delve into the future of therapeutic applications and the exciting possibilities they hold.

Day 2 – Tuesday 11th March

Auditorium 1

Big Data for big insights: Transforming Research

Track Chairs: Thierry Dorval (Servier) and Sara Imarisio (MDC)

The application of big data, alongside advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), is revolutionising pre-clinical research and drug discovery, providing a powerful tool to accelerate our understanding of disease mechanisms, facilitate the discovery of future treatments, and improve treatment precision. In neurodegenerative and other neurological diseases, this transformation opens new opportunities for patient stratification and biomarker discovery, enabling us to identify subgroups of patients with distinct biological profiles and disease trajectories.

This session will explore how big data and AI can bridge the gap between early-stage research and patient-specific therapies, akin to the strides seen in personalised oncology. By leveraging vast datasets from genomics, proteomics, and clinical trials, researchers are now able to pinpoint disease-specific markers and develop drugs with enhanced efficacy and safety. However, this opportunity also presents unique challenges in data integration, interpretation, and validation, particularly within the complex landscape of neurological diseases.

Through expert insights, we will examine how big data and AI are advancing our ability to target complex diseases, such as neurological disorders, with high precision, and what steps are necessary to fully unlock their potential in neuro-focused research and collaborative drug development.

Science Committee

Conference Directors

Roger Clark

Charles River Labs

Sarah Brockbank

MDC

Track Chairs

Marijn Vlaming

Charles River Labs

Arpan Desai

CamGene

Thierry Dorval (Servier)

Servier

Sara Imarisio

MDC

Speakers

We’re delighted to introduce our two fantastic Keynote speakers for Research & Innovation 2025.

Jue Wang

Research Scientist & Co-lead of the Protein Design Team,
Google DeepMind

Dr Jue Wang is a computational biologist, whose research interests are centred around protein engineering, deep learning, synthetic biology and sustainability. He is currently working at the intersection of machine learning and protein design in his role as Research Scientist and Co-lead of the Protein Design Team at Google DeepMind, where his goal is to develop tools to create proteins with novel, useful functions. Previously, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington, where he developed deep learning tools for de novo protein design with Nobel Laureate, Dr David Baker. He also pursued another post-doc project engineering a CO₂-utilising metabolic pathway in bacteria. Prior to this, Dr Wang worked at Ginkgo Bioworks developing tools for computational enzyme discovery. He holds a PhD from Harvard Medical School, where his research focussed the genetics and systems biology of cellular decision-making. Dr Wang will present ‘From rocks to picomolar binders: a short history of computational protein design in therapeutics’ during his keynote address.

Robert Grundy

CEO,
Intelligent OMICS

Dr Robert Grundy MBE has spent over 25 years in Pharma and Biotech beginning in drug discovery and development at Schering-Plough and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Grundy served as CSO with Cerebricon before joining Almac Discovery in 2008. In 2014, Rob founded Anglezarke Life Sciences, a commercialisation and growth strategy consultancy. He has served as CEO of CIGA Healthcare and Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland. He has held or holds visiting and honorary lectureships at King’s College London and Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Grundy formally chaired Matrix, the Science and Technology policy panel for the Northern Ireland Government and represented Northern Ireland on the Chief Scientific Advisors Network for the UK. He currently serves as CEO at Intelligent OMICS Ltd, an AI-driven drug discovery company. Dr Grundy’s keynote presentation will focus on ‘Exploiting big data to drive drug discovery through AI and collaboration’.

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Activities

ELRIG’s Breakthrough Zone gives your startup the visibility it needs to gain traction in the drug discovery community. As a leading scientific conference provider in Europe, our events attract attract pharma, biotech, and academic experts—your ideal early adopters, customers, and collaborators.

Connect with decision-makers, spark collaborations, and get your innovation in front of those who can take it to the next level.

What's included?

An A0 poster space with tabletop
Blinded GDPR-compliant delegate list
Access to lead capture via the event app
Opportunity to win ELRIG’s Innovation Award
(The winner will give a 10 minute auditorium presentation on Day 2 and get their fee refunded)
Affordable pricing – £500 + VAT

How do I apply?

Get in front of the right audience. Apply to be part of the Breakthrough Zone and tell us about your innovation in 300 words by 24th Jan 2025.

APPLY FOR THE BREAKTHROUGH ZONE

To be eligible to participate in the Breakthrough Zone and enter the ELRIG Innovation Award competition, your company should have less than 25 full-time employees and/or have a turnover of less than £2.5M.

We recognise the vital role that young companies play in driving innovation, so to support and amplify their contributions we’re delighted to bring the the ELRIG Breakthrough Zone to R&I2025 again.

This dedicated space highlights the latest solutions and technologies in thematic areas of this conference.e.g. big molecules such as proteins, RNA, cell and gene therapies, PROTACs and application of big data to support target identification, biomarkers, development of molecules.

Each year Research & Innovation 2025 recognises outstanding contributions to science and innovation through our awards. Whether you’re an early career professional or part of an innovative start-up, we’re offering you the opportunity to celebrate your research or technology with the ELRIG community.

Awards available at this conference:

Early Career Professional Best Poster Award
Innovation Award – available only to Breakthrough Zone participants at the conference

ECP Poster Award

The Early Career Professional Poster Award recognises the research and fresh ideas that the next generation of scientists bring to drug discovery.

Posters are judged on relevance, innovation, impact, and presentation quality, with the winner receiving:

£250 (which you can keep, donate to your lab, or give to charity).
A prestigious glass trophy.
Industry exposure & networking opportunities.

We define an ECP as an undergrad, postgrad (including PhD), or someone early in their career.

If you’re interested in applying for this award, please register for this conference and follow the instructions in your confirmation email.

A networking session like no other aimed at early career professionals.

Meet with industry experts, forge new connections, listen to their tips to the top and understand strategies to help your career. Just turn up and join this speedy, buzzy networking event. You’ll be glad you did!

Join us on 10 March 2025 at 6pm in the exhibition hall

What is an Early Career Professional?

We define ECPs as someone in life sciences and drug discovery who is an:

Undergrad
Postgrad (including PhD)
Within 5 years of finishing higher education and starting your career

*Career breaks will be recognised, as will individuals whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances.

Agenda

View the digital programme for Research & Innovation 2025.

View the full Agenda

Download event programme

Exhibitors

Find exhibitors on the event floorplan.

Find exhibitors

Find Floorplan

Posters

Discover numerous posters and innovative research from across the drug discovery community, aligned to our track themes. Hear from our Flash Poster Presenters and find out who has won the coveted Early Career Professional Poster Award!

PLEASE NOTE: Only one poster can be submitted per delegate. We only need your title and abstract, you do not need to upload your PDF. Also only Early Career Posters will be considered for a flash presentation at this event.

How to submit a poster

To submit a poster application you must first register for Research & Innovation 2025. A link to the poster portal will be available in your registration confirmation email. The poster abstract submitted must not exceed 300 words.

PLEASE NOTE: Only one poster can be submitted per delegate, we only need your title and abstract, you do not need to upload your PDF and only Early Career Posters will be considered for a flash presentation at this event.

Poster deadlines

Flash poster presentation are open to ECPs only – please submit your title and abstract by 9th February
to be considered for general display – upload your title and abstract by 23rd February

We have limited space at site and late entries will not be accepted.

If you have any questions regarding your submission, please contact events@elrig.org

Poster acceptance

The author will be held responsible for false statements, the scientific judging panel will ensure the poster is relevant to the event content. Successful poster applications will be notified via email and the poster display number will be given approximately two weeks before the event.

Flash Poster Acceptance

If your poster is chosen for a Flash Poster presentation, you will need to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to last no more than 5 minutes. The scientific judging panel will review the posters submitted for Flash poster presentations and if successful you will receive confirmation from the ELRIG Team two weeks prior to the event.

During the event

Your poster should be displayed for the duration of the full event.

A board will be available with your poster number and Velcro strips to affix your poster (your poster must be A0 portrait).

Poster sessions will take place during the late afternoon networking session on Day 1, and in the lunch refreshment break on Day 2. You will be expected to be at your poster during these times to answer questions from delegates.

All posters will need to be collected at the end of the event and removed from site; any posters left at the end of the event will be disposed of.

ECP Poster Award

The Early Career Professional Poster Award celebrates the fresh ideas and groundbreaking research shaping the future of drug discovery. The posters will be judged during Research & Innovation 2025 based on its relevance, innovation and impact. You will not need to be at your poster during judging.

If you’re an undergrad, postgrad (including PhD), or early in your career*, this is your chance to showcase your work and get the recognition you deserve.

The winner will receive:

£250 (which you can keep, donate to your lab, or give to charity).
A prestigious glass trophy.
Industry exposure & networking opportunities.

The prize is awarded during the opening session on day 2 of the event.

To apply for this award, please register for Research & Innovation 2025. A link to the Poster Portal will be available in your confirmation email where you can submit a 300 word poster abstract.

*Career breaks will be recognised, as will individuals whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances.

During registration you will be asked if you identify as an ECP – An Early Career Professional (ECP) can be a student in higher education undertaking an undergraduate or postgraduate degree (including PhD), or within 5 years of finishing higher education and starting their career in life sciences and drug discovery.

Venue & Accommodation

The Royal Society of Medicine
1 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 0AE
Plan your journey in advance.

Book your accommodation with ELRIG’s Registration & Accommodation Partner MICE Concierge Ltd.

Search and book now

The event room blocks represent your best value and most local hotels for the event. We understand there is a wide choice of options so if you don’t want to use the event room blocks we have partnered with Booking.com to give you access to the widest choice of hotels. Compare prices and see the widest choice with Booking.com.

ELRIG is only able to provide suggestions on how delegates may travel to or places they may stay at, to attend its events. However, ELRIG cannot recommend nor endorse any of the travel choices nor hotels that attendees make and is not liable for any of the services that its delegates procure.

Resources

Social Media

Download our useful social media images to share that you’ll be attending Research & Innovation 2025 with your network.

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Sponsorship Opportunites

We have several sponsorship opportunities available to exhibitors that can provide a wide range of new and exciting benefits for your organisation. We are also happy to discuss a tailored package to suit your budget.

Or visit our interactive floorplan to view available exhibitor spaces and book your booth at this conference.

Book your booth

Exhibitor Packages

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FAQs

Are ELRIG events really FREE to attend?

Yes ELRIG events are FREE to attend.

We are a not-for-profit organisation hosting events for the drug discovery community. We believe that access to high quality science should be accessible to all. Find out more here.

We’re grateful for the support from our exhibitors who help us cover the costs of our events from sponsorship and stand sales. If you come to our events, please take the time to visit our exhibition and meet our exhibitors.

Or if you’re interested in exhibiting at an event, check out our sponsorship page.

How do I change / cancel my registration?

As a non-profit organisation, we aim to reduce food waste, and your cancellation helps support our sustainability efforts.

If your circumstances change and you can no longer attend, please cancel your ticket. Your confirmation email includes a link to the cancellation site.

Delegates: What do I need to bring with me?

Please save your ticket to your smart device or print a copy. Upon arrival at the venue visit the ELRIG registration and scan the QR Code. Your badge will be automatically printed. If you forget or lose your QR Code you can enter your email address to print your badge.

Refreshments will be provided, please bring your own reusable cups to help us reduce plastic waste at our events.