Tenth Annual Conference – Statistical Integrity in Health and Care Research
NIHR Statistics Group Conference 2026
Location: The Edge, Sheffield
Date: 18-19 June 2026
Theme: Statistical integrity in health and care research
Our tenth annual Conference took place in Sheffield from 18th to the 19th of June at The Edge. The event showcased a variety of talks and presentations focused on the conference theme, Statistical Integrity in Health & Care Research.
The event is summarised in the 2026 Conference Newsletter.
The keynote speakers this year were Dr Puja Mehta, Professor Olivia Wu and Dr Jack Wilkinson. Links to their presentations are provided below.
Opening speaker Dr Puja Mehta spoke about Trust, Conflict & Authorship in Academic Collaborations, and her letter to the Lancet on this topic how now been published.
Plenary speaker Professor Olivia Wu described the BMBR programme and its impact on improving the quality of Health & Care research.
Closing speaker Dr Jack Wilkinson highlighted statistical methods for identifying fraudulent clinical trials.
In addition to some excellent posters and rapid-fire talks, the breakout sessions featured a diversity of topics focused on best practice in areas that included:
- 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
- qPCR experimental design, and much more
All were welcome to attend – it was of relevance to statisticians, data scientists and those with an active interest in statistics and data science.
The conference was held in hybrid format with bespoke technical support offered by Multicord Events team. This allowed us to stream the breakout sessions, keynotes and rapid-fire talks held in the main conference room only.
The NIHR Statistics Career Development Group hosted an Early Career Morning on the morning of 18th June from 10:00 to 13:00 prior to the main NIHR Statistics Group conference. This was an opportunity for early career statisticians, data scientists, and others interested in quantitative methods, to find out more about the NIHR Statistics Group. As well as a brief introduction to the NIHR Statistics Group, there was 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. The conference ran 12 such sessions. Breakout sessions were approximately 40 minutes long with 20 minutes reserved for questions and open discussion.
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