NIHR Statistics Group Conference
Location: The Edge, Sheffield | Date: 18-19 June 2026
Registration for the conference is now open!
The early bird registration deadline is Friday 27th March.
After this date, the fee will rise from £105 to £130 per day. The final deadline for registration is 29th May.
Register here for the NIHR Statistics Group Conference 2026
We are excited to host a series of fantastic talks and presentations focused on our conference theme this year, Statistical integrity in health and care research. Our keynote speakers this year are Dr Puja Mehta, Prof Olivia Wu and Dr Jack Wilkinson. In addition to the excellent line up of posters and rapid fire talks, the breakout sessions will feature a diversity of topics focused on best practice in areas that include patient and public involvement (PPI) in digital data collection, multiple imputation, artificial intelligence in research, core statistical competencies for postgraduates, tools to assess RCT trustworthiness, designing diagnostic medical device trials, mixed methods research practices, qPCR experimental design, methods and analysis in surgical trials, and much more.
The conference will be held in partial hybrid format with bespoke technical support offered by Multicord Events team that will allow us to stream the breakout sessions, keynotes and rapid-fire talks held in the main conference room only.
The provisional programme is available here; please note that this is still subject to change.
All are welcome to attend – it will be of relevance to statisticians, data scientists and those with an active interest in statistics and data science.
The main conference will start from 1pm with lunch on Thursday 18th June 2026.
The NIHR Statistics Career Development Group are hosting an Early Career Morning on the morning of 18th June from 10:00 to 13:00 prior to the main conference. This will be an opportunity for early career statisticians, data scientists, and others interested in quantitative methods, to find out more about the NIHR Statistics Group and how to make the most of the conference. As well as a brief introduction to the Group, there will be a series of short talks from invited speakers, and an exercise to get to know the other attendees.
A unique feature of the NIHR Statistics Group conference is to provide a forum for applied statisticians to discuss ideas and challenges they encounter, and much of this discussion takes place within the breakout sessions. Those of you who attended the 2024 conference may remember the breakout session on the MRC-funded International Statistics and Epidemiology Partnership, which aims to create a fully African-led network of early-mid career applied medical statisticians by 2028. The partnership has just released its first annual newsletter. We are delighted to hear that the partnership is making good progress in achieving its aims; this is exactly the kind of initiative we are keen to support with the conference, bringing together statisticians to support best practice and encourage networking.
One of the break-out sessions to be held at this year’s annual conference will focus on legacy and hand-over and is of particular relevance to anyone who has participated in the Ophthalmology Section or who might like to be going forwards. If there are any statisticians who have a particular interest in taking over the leadership of this group, please do attend; if interested but unable to attend the session, please email catey.bunce@lshtm.ac.uk.
The call for poster abstracts is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted their proposals this year, the organising committee will be in touch shortly. The deadline for submitting accepted posters via our online link (to be supplied separately) is 29th May 2026.
Accommodation can be booked via the onsite Jonas Hotel, with a discount code available when registered for the conference.
We are looking forward to seeing you in person or virtually in June!
