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Harriet Teare, Regulatory Science Strategy/Policy ‘STEM is central to many global challenges and working together across disciplines will be key’

Published 8 March 2023

Written by Harriet Teare, Deputy Director of Partnerships

Kathrine Switzer, who was the first woman to run the Boston marathon, in 1967, is my female hero. She joined the start line at a time when it wasn’t permitted for woman to run, and at mile two a race official physically tried to stop her but she powered on and crossed the finish line in 4 hours 20 minutes.

One of the recognised challenges for women in STEM is that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ - it is easier to take a path that people before you have trodden - if you can see people ‘like you’ have already done it, it makes it much easier to imagine yourself doing it. Part of the challenge for women in STEM is that there are still relatively few celebrated role models in positions of leadership, and history hasn’t been good at attributing women with their achievements, which makes it hard for young women to follow. Kathrine demonstrated that even if people haven’t done it first, it is still possible - if you have courage in your convictions and give it a go.

I originally did a degree in chemistry because I found every time I was required to make a decision about my studies – I just couldn’t give up the subject. I loved the research element of my undergraduate degree so much that I went on to do a DPhil in chemistry - looking at how to develop radiotracers for PET imaging.

I mostly worked in academic research before joining the MHRA, although I’ve followed a multidisciplinary path - largely at the interface between science and policy, including a number of years considering ethics, governance and law relating to medical research.

I am very proud to have led a research programme in ageing research - called UK SPINE - which was a knowledge exchange programme considering how to increase health span (healthy life years). I took over the programme in its final year of funding and built a new operations team to conclude the activities that had been committed. I was delighted that by the end, each of my team had secured an exciting new role, having used their experiences in UK SPINE to help identify what they wanted to move on to, and to identify opportunities to progress. It was brilliant that they had all benefitted from their involvement in the project, while contributing so much to its successful delivery.

My main driver has always been how to get research findings through to patient benefit and how to work with different stakeholders across disciplines and sectors to make this happen - which has now led me to the MHRA and the partnerships team.

I am very new here, so I’m currently on a steep learning curve to see how the regulatory science theory I’ve been involved in can be applied in practice, and the role and processes within the Civil Service.

It’s a very interesting time to join the agency, and specifically to think about how we enable partnership working with stakeholders across the healthcare landscape.

The training I received as a research scientist, in terms of testing ideas and gathering evidence, has been incredibly useful throughout my career. I have really benefitted from cross-disciplinary partnership working, drawing on different perspectives to consider a variety of potential solutions.

STEM is going to be central to many of our global challenges and working together across disciplines will be key. I am part of a global leadership programme for Women in STEMM (this also includes medicine), called Homeward Bound, which has enabled me to work with 99 other women across 34 different countries in the world, from different disciplines and at different stages in their career. It has been incredibly rewarding to work together and build a network to think about new ways to tackle big questions.

My advice to young girls looking for a career in STEM would be to figure out what you enjoy and study that and to talk to people who do a job you think you might like to do - there are so many opportunities in STEM, but it can be difficult to imagine all the different jobs that might lead to. And finally, be curious, and ask lots of questions!