Education programme

Situation

The FLIER (Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research) programme was launched by the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018. The aim of the programme is to support the development of future leaders, who can create collaborations that drive innovation across academia, industry, the NHS and government. The FLIER programme runs over two years and combines a unique blend of activities, including mentoring, workshops and a cross-sector project. To date, two cohorts with a total of 35 participants have taken part in the programme. Aleron and Freshney Consulting were appointed as independent evaluators of the FLIER programme, to develop and utilise an evaluation framework to identify and measure its outputs and impacts.

Our approach

Working closely with Academy staff and external stakeholders, we developed an evaluation framework that defines the key metrics used to measure the FLIER programme outputs and impacts. Due to the length of the programme, and the time required to achieve the desired outcome – developing future leaders – we also designed a detailed monitoring plan that spans multiple years, and sets out the required data collection activities. These included regular surveys with participants and their employers, interviews with a selection of participants, and continuous tracking of direct outputs of the programme. Each year, we analysed the resulting data and presented insights in evaluation reports.

Our impact

Our evaluation strongly demonstrates the positive impacts that the FLIER programme has had to date. Findings have been presented to the Taskforce of the programme and have helped to inform and shape future programme development. While the pandemic has caused increased clinical commitments for many participants, and has reduced the effectiveness of some programmatic elements that have had to shift to online platforms, it has also emphasised the importance of strong leadership within biomedical and health research.