2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium

We are excited to host the 2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium, two days of talks and workshops on medicines, NHS data, and open research.

• Day 1 will feature keynotes, lightning talks, and panel discussions.
• Day 2 will be dedicated to hands-on workshops.

Whether you’re working in healthcare research, policy, or practice, this is a chance to connect and learn from those generating and using medicines data in the UK.

• When: 10 - 11 December 2025
• Where: Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub, Jesus College, Oxford ¹

Registration and abstract submissions are now open

Note: symposium registration and abstract submissions are handled separately (see links below). If you wish to propose a talk or workshop, don’t forget to also register!

• Register for the symposium using the Eventbrite link.²
• Propose a talk or workshop using the abstract submission form

What you’ll learn

This year’s symposium is focused on medicines, NHS data, and open research methods. You’ll learn about:

• Ongoing work and recent findings from the Bennett Institute and our collaborators
• Tools like OpenSAFELY, OpenCodelists, and OpenPrescribing, and how others are using them
• Approaches to high-quality, reproducible analytics in the NHS
• Real-life examples of how data is being used to improve care, safety, and access
• Hands-on workshops to explore methods, tools, and workflows

Who you’ll meet

We’re bringing together people who often use the same data but don’t always get to work together. You’ll meet:

• Clinicians, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals who generate and use medicines data in everyday care
• Medicines optimisation teams
• Researchers, epidemiologists, and data scientists
• Policy makers and experts
• Data infrastructure experts and platform developers

If you have any questions, please contact the team using the email events.bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk

Share your work and shape the agenda

The 2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium is where two worlds meet: those delivering medicines optimisation on the ground, and those researching, evaluating, and building the data tools that make it possible.

This is your chance to share your work and discuss new ideas, collaborations, and approaches.

We’re looking for contributions that show how you’re using NHS medicines data to improve care, safety, access, or efficiency – whether in a research project, a quality improvement programme, a technical build, or policy development.

Day 1: Lightning talks (5-15 minutes): Fast-paced, inspiring stories or findings. Past and suggested topics include:

• Using OpenSAFELY for large-scale pharmacoepidemiology studies
• Analysing prescribing variation to target local interventions
• Integrating cost and safety data to inform ICB decision-making

Day 2: Workshops (up to 90 minutes): Practical, hands-on sessions to develop skills or tackle challenges together. For example:

• Reproducible analysis workflows in OpenPrescribing and OpenSAFELY
• Joint problem-solving between MO and pharmacoepi teams
• Visualising prescribing trends for public and professional audiences
• How to open up new medicines datasets safely and usefully

To join the conversation and share your work, all we need is a short title and an abstract (up to 300 words), follow the link to the submission form. We are also open to suggestions for other session types – please get in touch with milan.wiedemann@phc.ox.ac.uk with your ideas. We look forward to seeing you there!

Competition Time - Bennett Prize in OpenPrescribing

We are pleased to announce the inaugural Bennett Prize in OpenPrescribing.

The Bennett Prize in OpenPrescribing is a competition to showcase the best user-led projects using OpenPrescribing.net.

The winner will receive the spectacular Bennett Prize Trophy and have the opportunity to present their work at the Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium.

You can read more about how to enter this competition on our blog.

A draft schedule for the symposium is provided below. More details will be announced soon.

10 December 2025

Time	Details
09:00–10:00	Arrivals and Coffee
10:00–17:00	Talks The sessions will feature keynotes, lightning talks, and panel discussions. The programme will include lunch and coffee breaks which are also a great opportunity for networking and chats.
17:15–18:15	Drinks and canapés

11 December 2025

Time	Details
09:00–10:00	Arrivals and Coffee
10:00–16:00	Workshops Practical, hands-on sessions to develop skills or tackle challenges together. The programme will include lunch and coffee breaks which are also a great opportunity for networking and chats.

Speakers will be drawn from the Bennett Institute and the wider UK medicines community, and will be announced soon.

If you’d like to propose a short talk or workshop, please use the abstract submission form

The symposium venue is Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub, Jesus College, Market Street, Oxford OX1 3DW.

Getting there

The venue is in the centre of Oxford, easily reachable on foot or by bike, and only a short distance from the Bennett Institute’s home at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Radcliffe Primary Care Building.

• By train:
  The venue is only a 15-minute walk from the Oxford train station.
• By car:
  The venue does not support visitor parking. There are excellent Park and Ride options available in Oxford. There is very limited visitor parking, if you have such need, please contact Jade Womersley at events.bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk

Accommodation

A choice of University rooms can be booked on universityrooms.com.

Spaces

The Digital Hub is an excellent and dynamic space in the heart of Oxford and offers varied spaces across its four floors – from the ground floor main arena to breakout rooms.

College premises next to the The Digital Hub - Habakkuk Room - are also used as a breakout space.

Facilities

• Lunch and coffee breaks are provided, and there is an on-site cafe for any further needs.
• A prayer / quiet room is available for delegates.
• Delegates can make use of the cloakroom behind the reception area.
• The reception area is at the entrance to the Digital Hub on Market street.
• Free guest WiFi is available.

View The Digital Hub - venue website.

Accessibility

An accessible entrance is located at the Market Street entrance and a lift is available to all floors. Delegates must be accompanied by a chaperon to help open the glass doors. Hearing loops are available based on the request.

Delegates may indicate their accessibility needs through registration.

View Jesus College website for more information.