To further our mission to support our immunology community in driving scientific discovery and making a positive impact on health, the British Society for Immunology (BSI) aims to work with all stakeholders who play a role in immunology, including commercial organisations that make a profit.
Our policy outlines how we work with pharmaceutical, biotech and medical technology industries, in line with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s (ABPI) Code of Practice, and our commitments to protect our independence, reputation and continued support of our members.
We recognise the importance of working with industry where it supports key projects and initiatives within our strategy.
Charities, NGOs, government departments and industry play important roles in a complex research landscape, bringing different but complementary strengths to our work. Industry make a large contribution to basic and translational immunology research which leads to the development of new ways of diagnosing, treating, preventing and curing disease. Through collaborative work with industry, we can speed up and boost these advancements.
Our commitments
Here are our key commitments on working with industry:
Independence and impartiality
Our strategy and activities will not be influenced by industry organisations and we will retain editorial control over all our work. We will seek to work with several industry organisations on any given project when we can and we won't endorse particular products.
Openness and transparency
We will make sure that our involvement with industry organisations is clear, noting it on our website as appropriate, including information on the BSI corporate members, and in our annual reporting. We will also declare any interests to our Board of Trustees and other key BSI committees.
Responsible financial support
We will only accept funding from industry when it's in line with our mission and there is no attempt to influence our strategy or activities. To continue protecting our independence, no more than 25% of our annual income will come from industry funding, and any funding of over 5% will be reported to the BSI Finance Sub Committee for approval.
Income from industry in 2023-2024
In the last financial year (2023-2024), we received £112,000 from industry organisations, which was 4.8% of our total income. As per our policy, this does not include income derived from exhibitors and sponsors at BSI events, advertisers or publishing companies.
This policy was approved by the BSI Board of Trustees in July 2023. It is due for review in July 2026.
