This years Screening Rights Film Festival, supported by Connecting Cultures GRP, will take 22-25 October online. The festival is filled with hard-hitting and thought-provoking social justice films, as well as reflection and discussion.

You can look at the programme and get e-tickets for films and panel discussions here.

This conference focuses on improving the sustainability of UK universities, their estates and operations - and their wider contribution towards meeting net-zero 2050.

It takes place against the backdrop of the Government’s policy drive to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and significant initiatives within the sector itself.

Delegates will examine priorities, next steps and best practice for universities - including how challenges are being met and strategies for addressing unresolved issues - and the way forward for maximising the sector’s contribution to UK leadership in climate change research and innovation.

There will be keynote contributions from: Rt Hon the Lord Deben, Chairman, Committee on Climate Change; Rob Gillies, Associate Director Environmental Sustainability, UK Research & Innovation; and Professor James Longhurst, EAUC Commissioner and Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Environment and Sustainability, University of West England.

Abstract: “Mice are not little people” – a refrain becoming louder as the strengths and weaknesses of animal models of human disease and drug responses become more apparent. At the same time, three emerging approaches are headed toward integration: powerful systems biology analysis of cell-cell and intracellular signaling networks in patient-derived samples; 3D tissue engineered models of human organ systems, often made from stem cells; and micro-fluidic and meso-fluidic devices that enable living systems to be sustained, perturbed and analyzed for weeks in culture. Endometriosis, adenomyosis, and other gynecological disorders are paradigms of chronic inflammatory diseases that can only partially be modeled in animal systems. In this talk, approaches to classify patients on the basis of analysis of cell-cell communication networks will be described as a motivation for building patient avatars that capture salient features of the disease processes. Then, approaches to use synthetic extracellular matrices to build tissue-engineered models of the endometrium and endometriosis lesions, including microvascular networks and immune cell recruitment, will be highlighted, along with the potential to integrate these approaches for developing new drugs to treat endometriosis and adenomyosis.