Trinity Policy Dialogue

Trinity College, Cambridge
25th February 2025

The inaugural Trinity Policy Dialogue brought together 150 leading scientists, academics, industry heads, business leaders, policy makers and others to discuss the topic The NHS is Broken - How can Life Sciences Fix it?

A keynote lecture by Lord James O'Shaughnessy, was followed by a Q&A and panel discussion, chaired by Master of Trinity, Professor Dame Sally Davies, featuring sector experts and picking up on many of the themes of Lord O'Shaughnessy's lecture. Guests continued their conversation over drinks in the Master's Lodge before making their way to Hall for dinner and a chance to network further.

We are grateful to our speaker and panellists for their insight and for stimulating our conversations, and to all those who attended and helped make the evening into what it was - we rely on you now to take forward many of these discussions into your work. We would also like to thank our generous donor for making this event possible.

Speaker Biographies

Professor Dame Sally Davies
GCB DBE FRS FMedSci
Master, Trinity College

Dame Sally Davies, 40th Master of Trinity College, was appointed as the UK Government’s Special Envoy on Anti-Microbial Research (AMR) in 2019.

Former Chief Medical Officer for England, and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government from 2011-2019, Dame Sally is a leading figure in global health. In November 2020, she was announced as a member of the new UN Global Leaders Group on AMR, serving alongside Heads of State, Ministers, and prominent figures from around the world to advocate for action on AMR.

Dame Sally’s annual Chief Medical Officer's report on infectious diseases in 2013 first highlighted the scale and complexity of AMR as a public health threat. This report underlined the impact of AMR on clinicians and spurred Dame Sally on to bridge the research and policy gap – speaking nationally and globally on the subject. She has since secured funding for the UK to pioneer data-driven surveillance in 24 countries across Africa and Southeast Asia, which is contributing to global understanding of and action on AMR.

In the 2020 New Year Honours, Dame Sally became the second woman (and the first outside the Royal family) to be appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) for services to public health and research, having received her DBE in 2009.

Lord James O'Shaughnessy
Senior Partner, Newmarket Strategy

James has operated at the highest levels of government, including as a Minister in the Department for Health & Social Care, as Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, and as an advisor to Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. As Minister his responsibilities included implementing the Life Science Industrial Strategy, delivering a new pricing scheme with the pharmaceutical industry, chairing the National Genomics Board, and driving the digital transformation of the NHS. He was also responsible for preparing the health and social care sectors for Brexit and helping to design the post-Brexit regulatory regime.

James is co-founder and Senior Partner of Newmarket Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to improving access to health innovation by providing strategic advice and technical support to the healthcare, life sciences and health tech sectors. At Newmarket, James provides senior counsel to multinationals, SMEs, investors, universities and charities across health and life sciences, with a particular focus on technology, digital and data.

James is a Life Peer in the House of Lords, a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, a Trustee of HDR-UK, a non-executive director of Albion Development VCT plc, and Patron and Strategic Adviser to the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission. In 2023 James led and published an independent review of commercial clinical trials in the UK for HM Government.

Panellists

Dr John-Arne Røttingen
Chief Executive Officer, Wellcome

Roland Sinker, CBE
Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH)

Professor Cathie Sudlow, OBE
Director of the Adolescent Health Study at Medical Research Council (MRC) and Professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh

Professor Charlotte Summers
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Cambridge

Professor Sarah Teichmann FMedSci FRS
Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge

Lecture:
Lord James O'Shaughnessy

Photo Gallery

Thank you for joining us at this first event - we hope that the conversations initiated will continue beyond Trinity and help to shape our future for the better.

The Trinity Policy Dialogue will return in 2026 with a new topic.

For any questions about this web story, please contact:
alumni-events@trin.cam.ac.uk

Photo credits: David Johnson Photography & Trinity College Cambridge

Copyright Trinity College, Cambridge, 2025

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