Leading with Impact: How the Industry Foresight Council Shapes CRS
In delivery science and technology, companies bring ideas from the bench to the market and have always been an essential part of the CRS membership. Currently, around one-third of CRS’s members come from industries including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical, and consumer products. However, CRS leadership and conference attendance can be dominated by academic members, and the research that excites academics is not always the same as research that excites industry. To resolve this gap, CRS relies on its Industry Foresight Council.
“In pharmaceutical sciences, there are a couple conferences I go to, but CRS is definitely one of my favorites,” says Dr. Stephanie Barrett, a Distinguished Scientist at Merck & Co, Inc and past CRS Board member. “The energy is contagious. I always walk away with so many ideas to think about!” Dr. Barrett is one of 14 members of the Industry Foresight Council and has previously served as co-chair.
The Council, currently led by Dr. Beate Bittner from Roche, meets regularly to align on industry’s forward-looking priorities and provides an annual update to the CRS Board. Their charge is to report on industry trends, recommend education and training initiatives, connect CRS with new industry partners, ensure that industry professionals are represented as conference speakers, award nominees, and elected leadership, and more. The result is increased industry engagement, a stronger collective voice for industry leaders, and better alignment throughout CRS on top scientific problems and innovations.
“The benefit goes both ways: it’s helpful for industry to know what academics are working on, and it’s helpful for academics to know what industry’s problem statements are,” Dr. Barrett explains. She is currently the Council’s representative to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, where she provides guidance on conference programming and nominates industry speakers throughout the agenda.
In addition, the Industry Foresight Council helps organize workshops such as the Biologics Summit, a collaborative effort between CRS and IPEC-Americas to connect academic and industry partners. This year, the third annual Summit will focus on Cell & Gene Therapy. The first half of the Summit will be held at the Excipient World Conference & Expo from May 12-14 in National Harbor, MD. The second half will take place at the CRS Annual Meeting & Exposition from July 14-18 in Philadelphia, PA.
New this year, the Industry Foresight Council supported an inaugural CRS award to recognize outstanding achievements by individuals who have spent the majority of their careers in industry. This is the first of 14 CRS awards to exclusively honor contributions from industry members.
Looking forward, the Industry Foresight Council aims to have more members and bring more voices to the table. The Council also plans to develop connections with young scientists across the society. “For young scientists, it’s an opportunity to learn what industry jobs are out there,” Dr. Barrett continues, “and for industry professionals, it’s an opportunity to meet students, find potential colleagues, and give back to the next generation.”
While it can be challenging to balance the needs of industry and academia in one society and one Annual Meeting, the Industry Foresight Council plays a critical role in aligning effort and priorities throughout the organization. To learn more about the Council or ways for industry members to get more involved, you can meet Dr. Barrett (LinkedIn) at this year’s Annual Meeting and follow the Council on the CRS website.
Andrea Joseph (Twitter, LinkedIn) is an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University.
