**To**
## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date Period end date 24 08 2020 31 12 2021
**From**
## Section A Reference and administration details
ASSOCIATION OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS, MEDICAL **Charity name** ENGINEERS AND BIOENGINEERS **Other names charity is known by** BioMedEng Association **Registered charity number (if any)** 1191005
**Charity's principal address** Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, Bessemer Building, London **Postcode** SW7 2AZ
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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18|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not**
**for whole year**|**Name of person (or**
**body) entitled to**
**appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Prof Alicia El Haj|Universityof Birmingham|||
||Prof AnthonyBull|Imperial College London|||
||Prof Claudia Mazza|Sheffield University|||
||Prof Hazel Screen|Queen MaryUniversityof London|||
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**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
**Name Dates acted if not for whole year**
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|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|
|---|---|---|
||||
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## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Charitable Incorporated Organisation Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Association Model Constitution How the charity is constituted
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Charity trustees are appointed by a resolution of the members at the Trustee selection methods annual general meeting. (eg. appointed by, elected by)
**Co-opted Trustees** can also be appointed at any time by current trustees.
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
To advance education for the public benefit in biomedical engineering, medical engineering, and bioengineering, in particular but not exclusively by:
1. organising and holding scientific meetings and conferences;
2. and promoting the study and practice of biomedical engineering, medical engineering and bioengineering.
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**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
The BioMedEng Association is a professional body for engineers, clinicians, researchers and students working within Biomedical Engineering, Medical Engineering and Bioengineering disciplines. These disciplines are remarkably broad; with research ranging from fundamental studies, such as understanding signalling processes in cells, to highly applied work involving the development of technology to assist patient rehabilitation. These multidisciplinary subjects use engineering tools and techniques to solve problems arising from biology and medicine, and advancing these disciplines is beneficial to the public as it will improve medical practice and healthcare delivery. The Association had been operating as an unincorporated entity since 2008, when it launched the first UK bioengineering conference at Imperial College London – ‘Bioengineering 08’. Prior to this, there was not a UK conference suitable for the breadth of academic bioengineering research being conducted. The organisation went on to host Bioengineering09 at the University of Oxford, Bioengineering10 at the University of Nottingham, Bioengineering11 at Queen Mary University London, Bioengineering12 at the University of Oxford and Bioengineering13 at Strathclyde University. The annual conference was rebranded in 2014 as ‘MECBioeng’ to include the annual meetings of the EPSRC/Wellcome Trust Medical Engineering Centres. To promote inclusivity and cover all areas of the ever-growing discipline, the annual conference was rebranded in 2018 to start the ‘ **BioMedEng** ’ series. The Association also has a long-standing relation with the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and have organised joint conferences with IPEM in the past. BioMedEng conferences provide an excellent opportunity to discuss advances in the discipline, share ideas and opportunities, and train the next generation of leaders. These meetings have grown to become the UK's largest gathering of Biomedical Engineers, Medical Engineers and Bioengineers. Beyond the successful conferences, the BioMedEng Council, comprised of representatives from 20+ UK universities and institutions that offer qualifications in the discipline commenced proceedings in 2019 to formalise the Association, and promote the study and practice of the discipline. The Association of Biomedical Engineers, Medical Engineers and Bioengineers (BioMedEng) attained charitable status on 24[th] August 2020 with the Registered charity number: 1191005. The Association has undertaken a series of activities for public benefit since it was incorporated with the Charity Commission. **Launch Event:** The official launch of the Association took place on 14th September 2020 with an address from the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Academy of Engineering - Dr Hayaatun Sillem. To celebrate the discipline’s contribution and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the official launch included a panel discussion on ‘The Bioengineering Response to the Global Pandemic’. The session was moderated by Dr Helen Meese, Vice Chair, Biomedical Engineering Division, Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Panellists included Prof David James - University of Sheffield, Prof Rebecca Shipley - UCL, Dr Sophie Cox - University of Birmingham, Dr Joseph Sherwood - Imperial College London, Prof Sebastien Ourselin - ’ - King s College London, and Prof Molly Stevens Imperial College
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London. The hybrid event was open to the public and was free to participate. A recording of the event was also made available on the Association website and other video hosting platforms.
**Journal Partnership:** Following the successful launch, the Association published a collection of articles with the Open Access journal – Frontiers in Medical Technology. The collection captured the bioengineering response and activity on COVID-19 from several research groups in the UK and around the world.
The collection titled: The Bioengineering Response to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 is available online and was edited by two BioMedEng Trustees, Prof Alicia El Haj – University of Birmingham and Prof Anthony Bull – Imperial College London, and Prof Rebecca Shipley from University College London. The online collection compiles high-level manuscripts from international experts to showcase the bioengineering response to the global pandemic.
**Education Workshop:** Whilst the pandemic encouraged new ways of working and remote engagement opportunities, it was challenging for most educational institutions to move their academic offering online and provide seamless remote teaching in the early days of the pandemic.
Several academic institutions and departments rose to the challenge and developed bespoke platforms and strategic operations to address these challenges. Others tailored readily available resources and platforms to support teaching and research in their institutions.
The BioMedEng education workshop provided a central platform and opportunity for professionals from multiple institutions to share their experiences. Academics and students shared how their institutions adapted to the changes and their response strategy(ies) with colleagues from other institutions at the workshop.
The virtual event explored the lessons learned for biomedical education in the lockdown. As part of the event, the panel explored the benefits and challenges associated with remote learning of various biomedical engineering courses. The workshop was chaired by Prof Kawal Rhode from King’s College London and was organised in partnership with Prof Manos Drakakis from Imperial College London.
The session on ‘Lectures and Tutorials during COVID-19’ was chaired by Dr Jennifer Martay from Anglia Ruskin University. It included presentations from Dr Anita Ghag (University of Birmingham), Dr Gabriel Cavalli (QMUL), Dr Maria Romero-Gonzalez (QMUL) and a discussion on how to best engage students online.
The session on ‘E-learning and Software for BME Education’ was chaired by Dr Daniel Abasolo (University of Surrey) and included presentations from Prof Kawal Rhode (KCL) and Dr Sylvie Coupaud (University of Strathclyde). It also included a student perspective and discussion on challenges and limitations of Virtual Learning Environments.
The ‘Labs & Projects’ session chaired by Prof Julia Shelton (QMUL) included presentation on on-campus and remote labs and projects from Dr Sylvain Ladame (Imperial College London) and Dr Oleg Aslanidi (King’s College London). It also included discussions on how the development of laboratory and research skills have been affected by COVID-19.
The final session focused on conducting remote examinations during the
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pandemic and how best to adapt examination for the online format. This was chaired by Prof Sotiris Korossis, from Loughborough University.
The education workshop was held via Microsoft Teams. It was open to all and free to attend. A copy of the event recording is also available to members via the Association website.
**Partnership wth Gill Jennings & Every LLP:** As part of our fundraising efforts and engagement with industrial firms, the BioMedEng Association established an exclusive Intellectual Property partnership with Gill Jennings and Every LLP. The IP partnership allows BioMedEng members to have access to expert attorneys and collaborate on IP matters.
A key charitable object of the BioMedEng Association is to advance education and knowledge transfer in Biomedical Engineering, Medical Engineering and Bioengineering. This includes translating research beyond academia and the partnership with GJE contributes towards this objective. It also allows BioMedEng members to profit from a wide range of benefits including complementary intellectual property advice.
GJE Partner, Mr Graham Spenceley said: ‘Biomedical Engineering is an exciting field of medical technology, and the BioMedEng Association represents an extensive range of programmes and a community of top practitioners working and studying in this cutting-edge industry. We are proud that the BioMedEng Association has chosen GJE to be its recommended IP firm as this relationship presents a unique opportunity for us to guide the Association’s membership on their intellectual property. Our firm’s vision is founded on the value of creativity and we look forward to discussing the new and exciting innovations BioMedEng members present us with.’
More information about the BioMedEng and GJE partnership is available via the dedicated page on the Association website and via the flyer attached to this report.
**BioMedEng21 Conference:** BioMedEng conferences deliver 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.
These workshops allow exploration of subject specific topics as well as the opportunity to engage the community with in-depth 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.
Following the cancellation of the BioMedEng20 conference due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Association was pleased to host its 13[th] annual conference - BioMedEng21, at the University of Sheffield in September 2021.
The conference was chaired by Prof Gwen Reilly and organised in partnership with the University of Sheffield's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine.
This was the first hybrid conference since the meetings started in 2008. It had 175 in-person delegates and 135 online attendees from 43
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universities, (including 6 international universities and 7 industrial and clinical organisations).
The conference included an exciting programme of 4 plenary sessions, 1 after dinner speaker, 17 keynote speakers, 63 oral presentations, 57 power pitches, 65 poster presentations and 3 workshops. The conference also hosted the BioMedEng Association AGM and the General Assembly of the VPHi-UK Chapter.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
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The charity’s operations is managed by Dr Gifty Tetteh, who is currently funded by the Department of Bioengineering at no cost to the Charity.
In leading operations and engagement for the BioMedEng Association, Gifty is responsible for:
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
- Developing, maintaining and managing all aspects of the BioMedEng Association including coordination of effective administrative support
- • Ensuring maximum societal and charitable benefits for BioMedEng Association activities
- • Working with the BioMedEng Trustees and BioMedEng Council, to develop and implement the national strategy for the BioMedEng Association, ensuring the views of key stakeholders are represented
- • Creating, developing and strengthening collaborations between the BioMedEng Association, 80+ academic institutions and 580+ members involved with the Association
- • Managing the charity’s bank account, strategically analysing and tracking expenditure/finance budgets, and preparing financial reports for the Charity Commission
- • Reviewing and verifying new BioMedEng membership applications
- • Managing the BioMedEng Membership database, and regularly compiling the membership breakdown
- • Tracking membership due payments, chasing unpaid dues and facilitating membership renewals
- • Advising and supporting the BioMedEng Trustee Board and BioMedEng Council
- • Supporting the local organising committee and host institution organising the annual conference
- • Developing, maintaining, and updating the BioMedEng Association Website and social media communications
- • Managing the national call for proposals for hosting the BioMedEng conference
- Ensuring compliance with sponsorship agreements and contracts
- • Preparing Annual reports for the Charity Commission
- • Coordinating Trustee Board meetings and BioMedEng Council meetings
- Representing the BioMedEng Association where necessary
The BioMedEng conference and some of the Association events are also supported by a diverse team of volunteers. The 2021 conference was supported by 17 student volunteers, a programme committee and a local organising committee.
## Section D Achievements and performance
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Section D Achievements and erformance p
**Summary of the main Affiliate Memberships –** Beyond the successful incorporation with the **achievements of the charity** Charity Commission, the Association created a series of affiliate **during the year** memberships to allow interested persons to join the Association. The Association’s membership is open to practising engineers, clinicians, students, and anyone who is interested in Biomedical Engineering, Medical Engineering and Bioengineering. We welcome applications from UK and International members from Industry, Academic Institutions and Research Centres, Clinical Establishments and Hospitals, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations, amongst others. The different membership types on offer are available on the dedicated membership pages on the Association website. Potential members and interested persons can also use the simplified application form on the website to join the Association. In addition to receiving reduced registration fees at the annual conference and partner events, Association members have access to a wide range of benefits available at https://biomedeng.org/membership/ The current membership rate is £30/year for Full Members and £20/year* for Research Student Members (PhD and MRes). It also offers free annual memberships to verified undergraduate and MSc students. **Community Engagement Space –** The Association has also implemented an interactive online platform that allows members and stakeholders of the Association to share useful resources, upcoming events, vacancies, recent publications and other materials with the bioengineering community. This enabling space provides an opportunity for academics, students, clinicians and industry personnel from all over the world to exchange ideas and share resources. It was particularly useful for sharing teaching resources from the lessons learnt education workshop the Association organised during the pandemic. There is also a portal for capturing research interests from members. With such a wide range of sub-specialties for BioMedEng programmes, from artificial intelligence to wearable biosensors, the research interest platform is useful for planning future initiatives and allocating resources. **Membership Campaign -** Registration for the BioMedEng affiliate memberships launched on 1st Feb 2021. The initial membership campaign targeted the Association’s mailing list and host institutions of the current formal members. This led to about 171 membership applications in mid-Feb 2021. There was an additional campaign targeted at over 30 UK institutions offering bioengineering programmes which increased the Association’s membership to 372 members. Membership has continued to increase steadily with subsequent campaigns and event communications. The Association currently has about 580 affiliate members from over 80 UK and international institutions.
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Section D Achievements and erformance p
**Sponsorship Campaign and Fundraising –** An online donation platform has been set up via the BioMedEng website to support activities of the Association.
To help raise additional funds for the charity and expand its industrial networks and contacts, the Association contacted a series of companies to find additional funding. It was successful in securing commitments and sponsorship deals from a number of companies who were interested in partnering with the Association.
**Tenure System –** The Association has also introduced a tenure system for formal members. This allows the founding formal members who were kept on from the scientific committee of the BioMedEng19 conference to serve the Association for specific periods.
The tenure system also allows new formal members to join the Association and bring new ideas on board when the tenure of current members expire.
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## **Section E Financial review**
**Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves**
**Details of any funds materially in deficit**
No funds are in deficit
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
## **Section F Other optional information**
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)** Dr Gifty Tetteh **Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** Secretary **etc) Date** 10.05.22
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|**Charity Name**||**No (if any)**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**BioMedEng Association**||**1191005**|||
|**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**|
|Period start date
**For the period**
**from**
24.08.2020|**To**|Period end date
31.12.2021|||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**31**
**7,000**
**6,345**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**13,376**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**13,376**
**83**
**878**
**312**
**-**
**-**
**151**
**1,423**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,423**
**11,952**
**-**
**-**
**11,952**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**31**
**7,000**
**6,345**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**13,376**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**13,376**
**83**
**878**
**312**
**-**
**-**
**151**
**1,423**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**1,423**
**11,952**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Donations,Grants and Interests|**31**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**31**||**-**|
|Fundraising|**7,000**|||**7,000**||**-**|
|Members’ subscriptions|**6,345**|||**6,345**||**-**|
|Fees for charitable services|**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|
**13,376**|||**13,376**||**-**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**
|||**-**||**-**|
|~~**_Sub total_**~~|**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_ **
**A3 Payments**|||||||
||||**-**|**13,376**||**-**|
||||||||
|Event Web Hosting|**83**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**83**||**-**|
|Legal Services|**878**|||**878**||**-**|
|Conference Expenses|**312**|||**312**||**-**|
|Telephone,internet andpostage|**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|Printing, postage, stationery and computer
supplies|
**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|Bank interest and charges|**151**|||**151**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**1,423**|||**1,423**||**-**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||
||**-**||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|||
||**-**|||**-**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Total payments_ **
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||
||||**-**|**1,423**||**-**|
||||||||
||**11,952**|**-**|**-**|**11,952**||**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**
**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**11,952**|**-**|**-**|**11,952**||**-**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
15/08/2022
1
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Bank Account
PayPal
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature
Anthony Michael
James Bull
Digitally signed by Anthony
~~Michael James Bull~~
Date: 2022.08.15 12:09:04
+01'00'|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**10,458**
**-**
**1,494**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,952**
**-**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
AnthonyBull|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||Anthony Michael
Digitally signed by Anthony
~~Michael James Bull~~|AnthonyBull|15th August 2022|
||
James Bull
Date: 2022.08.15 12:09:04
+01'00'|||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
15/08/2022
2