Dear BELMAS members,
As we move from the Spring to Summer term in schools, and towards the end of our Spring Semester in universities, I am reminded that Easter is often seen as a time for new beginnings. I am delighted to say that the BELMAS Trustee Board has chosen Professor Steven Courtney to become the next Chair. Huge congratulations to Steve, who will formally start his role from 1st January 2027. In the meantime, Steve and I have already started handover meetings, and planning who is going to attend the usual calendar of BELMAS events, in the Autumn Term.
I will have served three years as Belmas Chair, and was Vice Chair for three years before that, but I have also been on the BELMAS Board since 2016, and it is important that these roles change to allow new members to come in and serve terms of office, which is one of the things that our new Charitable Incorporated Organisational status, that was launched in January 2024, guarantees. I think this is really for the best, as it means that the BELMAS Trustees have to come off the Board having served two 3-year terms of office. Steve will become the Co-Chair from 1st September, I will then leave the Board on 31st December, enabling us to have a term’s handover rather than waiting until 2027.
I am very grateful to all BELMAS members for the opportunity to be your Chair, and it is a role that I enjoy tremendously. This past term we have had an event in January, three events in February, and eight events in March, that also included our Early Career Researcher Month. We have been busy planning the conference, and, as usual, this is in safe hands with the combination of our Conference Committee, and our Office Team, who have all been working extremely hard. We held an excellent EDI event in March, thanks to our EDI Committee, and the recording is on the website for that if you missed it, along with our other events. In the meantime, the Awards, Bursaries, and Grants Committee has been fully occupied, again making sure that everything is ready for Conference, but also with our annual awards in other areas.
I am very grateful to everybody on the BELMAS Trustee Board for all the work that they have done again this term, but also to the members who support this wider work, through sitting on various sub-committees, and helping out with areas such as the BELMAS Blog. There are a myriad of ways to get involved if you have any time spare – so please keep an eye out in the Friday newsletter.
Thank you, and we look forward to engaging with you all as we move forward to the Summer and to our 2026 Conference in Cardiff this July.
Deb Outhwaite
You can read more from our Chair here.
