News
#UKSB2025 Travel Awards
Closing date for applications – 17th May 2025
The UKSB council are delighted to announce the provision of competitive Travel Bursaries for UKSB member PhD students who wish to attend and present at this year’s UKSB conference. The bursaries will cover registration and up to £300 for accommodation and travel. To apply for this award you must complete the application form justifying why this bursary is required and commit to presenting at the conference and producing a short article/BLOG for the UKSB website.
The UKSB Travel Awards application process will open after abstracts have been reviewed and accepted and the closing date will be announced at that point.
Eligibility and Conditions for the UKSB 2025 Travel Award – see more info

“...this conference which has been an enriching experience.“
Anushree Ghosh Dastidar
New Innovation in vitro Brain Modelling
BrainMix
A team from Keele University, including Prof Divya Chari and Dr Chris Adams, is participating in the BBSRC National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) funded Innovate UK ICURe programme. Their goal is to explore the market potential of their research and address the challenges faced in neuroscience research.
As part of this initiative, they are developing BrainMix, a product designed to provide a simple-to-use yet representative model of the brain for neuroscience research.
The team is pleased to announce that the BrainMix landing page is now live: https://brainmix.co/
The website includes more information about BrainMix, including an explainer video and a downloadable PDF. Those interested are encouraged to visit the site, and the team is happy to arrange discussions for further inquiries.

BrainMix.co
European Society for Biomaterials updates
There are some important deadlines coming up from the European Society for Biomaterials, here is a quick summary:
- 14th March 2025: Nominate candidates for ESB Council membership. Nominations should include a one-page resume and a nominee application letter, both signed by the nominee. Nominations should be sent by the nominators to secretary@esbiomaterials.eu.
- 15th March 2025: Abstract submission deadline for the ESB conference
- 31st March 2025: ESB membership fees due.
- 31st May 2025: Application deadline for the ESB’s Raquel le Geros Award
- 15th June 2025: Submission deadline for the ESB’s Rudolf Cimdins Scholarships
- 7-11th September 2025: 34th Annual Conference of the ESB
The ESB also highlights the following events which may be of interest:
- 16-19 June 2025: AO Orthopaedic Research Summit 2025
- 7-11th July 2025: BIOMAT International Summer School 2025
European Society for Biomaterials Webinar 25th Nov 2024
The ESB is hosting a webinar “Metal-based Research from across Europe” at 15:00 CET on the 25th of November. Speakers will be Regine Willumeit-Roemer (German Society for Biomaterials) & Alicja Kazek-Kęsik (Polish Society for Biomaterials).
Link to access the registration form: https://form.jotform.com/241543848154359

British Society for Matrix Biology, Spring Meeting, 14th-15th April 2025
The British Society for Matrix Biology (BSMB) is holding their spring meeting in Nottingham on the 14th and 15th of April in 2025 on the University Park Campus. The meeting will include a diverse range of national and international speakers will present their recent research on “Extracellular matrix, immunity and infection””, and in associated matrix research.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Prof Judith Allen (University of Manchester, UK)
- Prof Janet Lee (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)
- Prof Kristian Riesbeck (Lund University, Sweden)
- Dr Giampiero Pietrocola (University of Pavia, Italy)
- Prof Tracey Hussell (University of Manchester, UK)
- Prof Charles Frevert (University of Washington in Seattle, USA)
- Dr Helene Moreau (Institut Curie, France)
- Prof Oliver Fackler (University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany)
- Prof Anna Blom (Lund University, Sweden)
- Prof Luisa Martinez-Pomares (University of Nottingham, UK)
Registration and abstract submission for oral and poster presentations will open on 1st January 2025. In the meantime, please keep an eye on the BSMB and meeting websites for updates, and to find more information about the event, including venue, accommodation, travel and meeting schedule.
Finally, consider becoming a member of the BSMB, if you aren’t already, to enjoy discounted registration fee and qualify for relevant bursaries if you are an early career researcher.
Please contact Dr Anna M. Piccinini, University of Nottingham (anna.piccinini@nottingham.ac.uk) if you have any queries.
Excellent upcoming meeting!

As part of an Horizon Europe funded project SUPRALIFE – https://www.supralife.eu – at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, counting on Bert Meijer and Patricia Dankers (TU/e, the Netherlands) and Sébastien Lecommandoux (University of Bordeaux, France) as partners. This project is mostly focused on the organization of events aiming at fostering the exchange of knowledge in the field with a small part devoted to research itself. In brief, the project aims to rationally design and develop advanced supramolecular multifunctional biomaterials for healthcare
The project has already hosted two very successful events: 1st school, 2nd school – and are now organizing the third school under the theme ‘Supramolecular Multifunctional Biomaterials’ which will take place in Aveiro from 9-14 March 2025. Similar to the first and second schools, the third school will include a scientific program from 9-11 March 2025, which will include time slots for non-invited contributed abstracts for oral and poster presentations. Abstract submission is open until November 15.
The next meeting will also include a soft transferable skills’ program from 12-14 March 2025 mostly focusing on the personal and professional development of students and ECR. This year we aim to cover topics such as leadership, entrepreneurship, networking & career enrichment, the importance of volunteering to advance your career, among others.
X – https://x.com/SupraLife_EU
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/supralife-eu/
Early Career Forum – opportunity to have your say
Are you interested in joining the UKSB ECF committee? Are there topics you would like covered as part of a series of early career workshops?
Our focus is to represent the interests of the younger members of the UKSB by promoting scientific/social events, sponsoring national/international conferences, and advertising work/research/faculty positions. All non-faculty UKSB members can join the UKSB – ECF without additional fees; eligible scientists automatically join the UKSB – ECF as members of the UKSB. All UKSB members are encouraged to raise awareness of ECF to new eligible members (e.g., students, postdocs., fellows, etc).
We are committed to promoting education and training in the biomaterials field at national and international level, to provide a forum for discussion, communication, and collaboration between the ECF members, to organize meetings, workshop, and events related to biomaterials, and to advertise academic and industrial positions and possibilities for ECF members.
Please fill in the form below to join and to give your thoughts on topics organised.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbmLYR-SFEjgyhjI9bCH9RWt-BXs87dwRdMCrdJS4b4xhI3w/viewform?usp=sf_link
Industry survey
The UKSB is seeking feedback from industry so that we can strengthen links between academia and industry. If you are an industry member then we would be extremely grateful if you could complete our survey using the link below, and we would welcome all members to reach out to any contacts within biomaterials industries and ask them to take a moment to have their say.