Mental Health GoalsNational Programme

Industry Engagement Forum

The Industry Engagement Forum brings industry partners together with the workstreams of the Mental Health Goals Programme, alongside the trade associations ABPI and ABHI. It launched on 8 October 2026 at King’s Venues at London Bridge; the presentations from the launch meeting are below, and the meeting report will follow.

The Mental Health Goals ridge drawn in amber — contour lines rising to a twin summit on a deep petrol ground

About the Forum

About the Forum

The Industry Engagement Forum (IEF) promotes impactful collaboration between industry partners and the programmes, initiatives and workstreams of the Mental Health Goals Programme (MHG), alongside the trade associations ABPI and ABHI.

The Forum is convened by DIGIT, the Data and Digital Industry Alliance Team, one of the programme’s four national workstreams, delivered through three linked strands.

The launch meeting

The launch meeting

The launch meeting on 8 October 2026 at King’s Venues at London Bridge brought global CROs, pharmaceutical and digital industry partners, biotech organisations, ABPI and ABHI together with the programme’s workstream leads. It was designed to establish a strategic dialogue with industry, demonstrate the strengths of the UK mental health research ecosystem, identify barriers to collaboration, and provide input for a roadmap for accelerating novel therapeutics for mental illness.

The morning set out the UK landscape and introduced each of the programme’s workstreams. In the afternoon an industry roundtable discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of running Phase I–III studies in the UK, breakout groups discussed how to build earlier strategic partnerships, and the Forum was formally launched.

Presentations

Presentations

Slides from the launch meeting, in the order of the agenda below. They are published with each speaker’s permission and remain the copyright of their authors and organisations; the views in them are the presenters’ own.

Session 1: Introductions and UK landscape

Session 2: MHG programme overview

Afternoon: NHS adoption and industry roundtable

There are no slides for the introductions, Q&A, breakout discussion, Forum launch, next steps or closing remarks; they are recorded in the agenda below.

If you use assistive technology and need a presentation in a different format, contact the Alliance Management Team. Tell us the format you need and the assistive technology you use; we aim to respond within 10 working days.

Meeting report

Meeting report

The report of the launch meeting is being prepared and will be published here, as web text with a PDF copy. It will set out:

  • the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats agreed at the industry roundtable;
  • the top 10 barriers to industry collaboration, and proposed solutions;
  • the priority actions and next steps agreed at the launch.
Date
8 October 2026
Venue
King’s Venues at London Bridge, Boland House, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9GU
Audience
Global CROs, pharmaceutical and digital industry partners, biotech organisations, ABPI, and ABHI
Timing
10:00–16:20 (business breakfast from 09:30)

Agenda

  1. 09:30Business breakfast
  2. 10:00Session 1: Introductions and UK Landscape (10:00–11:15). Prof. Mitul Mehta — introductions and meeting objectives (10 min).
  3. 10:10Prof. Husseini Manji — UK landscape: strengths and challenges (15 min). UK strengths in mental health research, early-phase trials, trial-ready cohorts and delivery; MHG’s coordinated UK-wide infrastructure connecting research, NHS delivery, industry, lived experience and policy to accelerate translation from discovery to patient benefit.
  4. 10:25Dr Joanna Jenkinson, MBE (Director of R&D Policy, ABPI) — State of the Nation: opportunities and challenges facing industry in considering the UK as a destination for research and clinical trials (15 min).
  5. 10:40Emma Maher (Senior Director, Therapeutic Networks Lead, IQVIA) — State of the Nation: an IQVIA perspective on the evolving healthcare landscape (15 min).
  6. 10:55Q&A (10:55–11:15).
  7. 11:15Coffee / tea break (11:15–11:30).
  8. 11:30Session 2: MHG Programme Overview — the new UK opportunity (11:30–13:00; Chair: Prof. Kathryn Abel). Workstream leads introduce their areas and how they contribute to MHG, with 10 minutes per talk:
  9. Industry Alliance Management Team (AMT) — Prof. Mitul Mehta (10 min).
  10. Innovative Clinical Trials Hub (ITH) — Prof. Richard Emsley (10 min).
  11. Lived Experience Industry Partnership (LEIP) — Dr Siân Rees (10 min).
  12. GLAD MHG Workstream — Prof. Gerome Breen (10 min).
  13. Omics–Psychosis — Prof. Graham Murray (10 min).
  14. Digital Innovations — Dr Trina Histon (10 min).
  15. DATAMIND TRE — Prof. Ann John (10 min).
  16. DATAMIND Observatory — Dr Matthias Pierce (10 min).
  17. 13:00Lunch (13:00–13:40).
  18. 13:40Rebecca Parkin (Associate Director, Digital Health, ABHI) — Driving Adoption Across the NHS (13:40–13:50).
  19. 13:50Session 3: Industry roundtable (13:50–14:40; Chair: Prof. Vaibhav Narayan). Strengths and weaknesses of conducting Phase I–III studies in severe mental illness (SMI) and neurodegeneration, and the opportunity for the UK to strengthen its position globally given the increasingly challenging trials environment in parts of the world.
  20. Key questions for CROs and industry: What attracts industry to the UK? What are the major barriers? How can we enhance the impact of lived experience involvement? Why do studies go elsewhere? What would make MHG a preferred partner? How can we add value earlier in the development cycle? Output: a prioritised SWOT analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
  21. 14:40Session 4: Building earlier strategic partnerships — breakout discussion (14:40–15:30; Chairs: Prof. Richard Emsley and Dr Siân Rees). Navigating from service provider to strategic partnership with global pharma and digital health, drawing on the UK’s data, digital and R&D landscape. Exploring new methodologies and co-development opportunities from the MHG programme.
  22. Potential areas for exploration: engaging industry at the experimental medicine/proof-of-concept stage; co-development opportunities; joint funding bids; lived experience opportunities; synthetic trials; real-world analytics; biomarker and platform studies; target validation; industry engagement models.
  23. Key question: What do we need to put in place to develop the partnerships between the goals programme and industry to address the challenges we have identified?
  24. Prompts for discussion: Who should we be speaking to — inside and outside companies? How should we engage? What activities should we prioritise to develop partnerships?
  25. 15:30Industry Engagement Forum launch (15:30–15:50) — Prof. Vaibhav Narayan and Prof. Mitul Mehta: review whether the meeting’s objectives have been covered; refine initial next steps and priority actions with live input from attendees via Mentimeter; launch the Industry Engagement Forum.
  26. 15:50Next steps (15:50–16:05).
  27. 16:05Closing remarks and reflections — Prof. Trevor Jones (16:05–16:20).

Looking ahead

Looking ahead

Later Forum meetings will build on the launch day to develop a one-page UK mental health value proposition, an industry engagement strategy for 2027–2029, a communication and stakeholder engagement plan, named leads for CRO, pharma and biotech engagement, and a 90-day action plan with owners. Future meetings will be announced on this page and under News & events.

Join the Forum

Join the Forum

To join the Industry Engagement Forum, or with questions about the launch meeting, contact the Alliance Management Team.

Questions about the Forum?

The Alliance Management Team can tell you more about the Forum and how your organisation can take part.

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