AIRA Science Day 2025
On 4th September we were delighted to host the first AIRA Science Day 2025, bringing together more than 35 participants, including scientists, patients and members of the public, to share ideas and experiences ensuring the research lead by our scientists aligns with patients’ and societal needs.
Left to right: Mohammed T Hussain, Camilla SA Davan-Wetton, Trinidad Montero-Melendez, Nicholas J Day, and Natalya Khodeneva.
The AutoImmunity Research Advisors Group (AIRA), is a patient and public involvement and engagement group focused on research on autoimmune diseases. The AIRA Group is currently formed by 36 members of the non-scientific community who wish to understand better how autoimmune diseases develop. Around 1 in 10 individuals may be affected by an autoimmune disease, causing a serious social, economic and personal burden in millions of individuals around the world.
“I decided to found AIRA to favour an inclusive approach to science by engaging directly with patients and members of the general public, aiming to foster an environment where we can co-create research, build trust in science and give voice to communities which, after all, are the main stakeholders of biomedical research”, said Dr Trinidad Montero-Melendez, Reader in Molecular Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute.
Examples of AIRA Group’s ‘engagement’ actions include the release of a monthly outreach activity, the AIRA Magazine, in which young scientists at the WHRI explain science in plain language, and talks delivered by junior researchers during the AIRA Science Day 2025. We congratulate PhD student Ms Zara Kahn for receiving the Best Oral Presentation Award. AIRA also includes ‘involvement’ activities in which the public actively participate in research by providing insights and opinions on grant applications, raising research-related questions though the AIRA Magazine, and participating in interview panels at our research facilities.
The commitment of AIRA Group since its creation has been exceptional. The group has actively contributed to four grants and fellowships applications, and organising the AIRA Science Day 2025 has been fundamental in maintaining the engagement of our members. However, the most important marker of success of AIRA Science Day 2025 come from patients’ testimonies, some of which are below:
“For someone like me, who has zero science background, the opportunity to observe the young scientist talks, and to actually understand what was being explained to me, was life-changing”
“I learnt so much in such a short period of time, that it makes wonder how much more ordinary people like me could educate themselves about and perhaps contribute to the immense research you, your gifted and talented teams lead, and within the wider WHRI“
“Thank you so much for the wonderful open day you gave: everything was so well organised, and the attention to detail was fantastic”
“I would love to support your future events and contribute to testing the scope of future research projects, and or review grant applications etc”
This event was organised by Trinidad Montero-Melendez and her research team (Millie, Natalya, Nick and Mo) and it was possible thanks to the funding from The Lorna & Yuti Chernajovsky Biomedical Research Foundation.