Conferences

 

3rd Annual Advanced Pain Discovery (APDP) Conference

The conference will take place on Tuesday 3rd June 2025 at the ICC Wales, in Newport, South Wales.

The Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP) is a consortium-based UK network resource that is breaking through the complexity of pain and revealing new treatment approaches to address a wide spectrum of chronic and debilitating clinical conditions. The APDP conference can welcome up to 250 delegates: hosting a network of researchers from universities across the UK, pharmaceutical companies, people with lived experience of pain, charities, and government sectors. The conference will be a Scientific Conference, aiming to share new scientific knowledge and ideas on pain mechanisms. Presentations will position research within the context of the real world and the needs of people with lived experience of pain.

This year’s conference is taking place in the same week, and in the same venue as the British Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting. APDP and BPS conferences are linked but separate events. APDP conference registration is free to APDP community members.  

Find out more about the APDP conference and community

Become a member of the APDP community

Contact APDP Administration

2nd Annual Advanced Pain Discovery (APDP) Conference

The APDP Annual Conference 2024 was successfully held on Friday, 7th June 2024 in the East Midland Conference Centre, University of Nottingham.

The annual meeting incorporated a PPI/E agenda, with content selected by experts in public involvement and engagement together with diverse people with lived experience of pain. Academic and PPI/E agendas converged and mirrored each other, while separate components of the programme also recognised the needs both for detailed technical discussion, and for presentations that were accessible to a diverse audience.

The academic programme included Elevator Pitches (short presentations of key outputs from APDP community members) linked to poster presentations, a Plenary lecture, and workshops with the key themes:

•  Co-morbidity
• Pain in Childhood
• Diversity amongst people with pain
• Cohorts
• Technological solutions to pain

1st Annual Advanced Pain Discovery (APDP) Conference

The conference took place on the 26th of June 2023, in the Business School South, Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham.

The APDP conference welcomed 200 delegates: hosting a network of researchers from universities across the UK, pharmaceutical companies, people with lived experience of pain, charities, and government sectors.

APDP Annual Conference built on new and established collaborations, sharing knowledge and bringing together diverse perspectives across a broad range of disciplines and stakeholder groups. The academic programme included Elevator Pitches (short presentations of key outputs from APDP community members) linked to poster presentations, a Plenary lecture, and workshops.

Versus Arthritis 4th Annual Pain Research in the UK Conference 2022

This conference took place on Monday 27 June 2022  9am - 5pm at King's College London.

The conference brought together UK researchers in musculoskeletal and chronic pain. This annual meeting was an opportunity for research leaders and early career researchers to come together in person to establish and consolidate collaborative networks, and to shape future research direction. 

The day combined short quick fire elevator pitch presentations from leading pain research teams and poster presentations, followed by parallel workshops based around the key themes of the day:

• Psychosocial aspects of pain
• Nociplastic pain
• ‘Omics’ in pain
• Mechanisms of chronic pain in the periphery
• Comorbidities

For further information, please see below.

Conference Programme

Versus Arthritis Conference Report 2022

Versus Arthritis 3rd Annual Pain Research in the UK Conference 2021

This conference took place on Wednesday 14 July 2021  9am - 5pm

Research themes included:

Big Data, Pain Measurements, Phenotypes, Molecular Pain Mechanisms and New Approaches to Treatment 

For further information, please see below.  

2021 Conference Programme

Research In the UK Conference Report

Versus Arthritis 2nd Annual Pain Research in the UK Conference 2020

This conference took place on Wednesday 9 September 2020  9am - 4pm

Research themes include: Models of Pain, Measurement of Pain, Psychological Mechanisms, Pain Biomarkers, Brain Networks, Functional Connectivity and Novel Targets for Treatment.

2020 Conference Programme

2020 Conference Flyer