The Lister Institute’s Governing Body of trustees plays a pivotal role in shaping our strategic priorities and ensuring we fulfil our mission to support excellent biomedical research in the UK. We spoke with Anne Rosser and Jane Hillston about their experiences of research leadership, and their commitment to supporting early-career researchers.
Anne Rosser
- Member of the Lister’s Governing Body
- Chair of the Lister’s Scientific Committee
Professor Anne Rosser is a clinician-scientist and internationally recognised leader in regenerative medicine, specialising in therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Huntington’s disease. She is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University and co-director of the Cardiff Brain Repair Group. Her pioneering work focuses on stem-cell-derived therapies, with her lab progressing toward first-in-human clinical trials.
Anne received the Lister Prize in 2000, a milestone she credits with enabling her transition to Cardiff and the establishment of her research group. She has held numerous leadership roles, including Chair of the European Huntington’s Disease Network (2014–2024), and serves on advisory boards for global initiatives like Enroll-HD. “I’ll keep the Governing Body in touch with the processes and decisions of the Scientific Committee. The role’s really critical, because the Governing Body needs to know how to respond well to opportunities and challenges.”
Jane Hillston
- Member of Lister’s Governing Body
Professor Jane Hillston is a leading computer scientist and Professor of Quantitative Modelling at the University of Edinburgh. She is internationally recognised for pioneering work on stochastic process algebras, notably the PEPA framework, which has applications in performance modelling of computing systems and systems biology.
Jane has held significant leadership roles in her institution, including Head of the School of Informatics (2018–2023) and Deputy Vice Principal Research; she currently serves as Dean of Research Culture. She is Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the Royal Society A and a member of the EPSRC Council. Her accolades include the British Computer Society’s Roger Needham Award and Lovelace Medal, the Royal Society of Edindurgh Lord Kelvin Medal, and an MBE for services to computer science and women in science. “I’m bringing my background in interdisciplinary work, but also my experience of leadership in institutions and funders. I think the research that’s going on under the auspices of the Lister is very exciting, and I think there’s scope for more interaction with AI as those techniques go forward.”
Shared values
As Anne and Jane add their voices to the Governing Body, their enthusiasm for nurturing the next generation of stellar researchers is clear. The Lister’s focus on transformative funding and a supportive lifelong membership to its community is compelling, they agree.
“When you become a Lister Fellow and you join that community, it’s so helpful,” reflects Anne, herself a former Fellow (2001-2005). “You benefit from the connections and creative thinking of other Fellows, but you also contribute to this collective understanding and knowledge of the scientific challenges that everybody’s going through together. I think having been a Lister Fellow will be extremely helpful now I’m doing this job.”
Jane echoes this sentiment. “I’m very keen on these schemes that empower early-career researchers to strike out in their own direction. One of the really great things about the Lister is the flexibility. It gives Prize winners freedom to decide how to best spend their award – through hiring support in the lab, hiring someone to replace their teaching or clinical effort – to create the space for them to really shine. An academic career is a strange mix of a sprint and a marathon. It’s so important to get off to a flying start, so the more space you can have in developing your skills, creating your network, and gaining your confidence early, the more it sets you up for later success.”
Culture
Building on this community foundation, Anne and Jane both have vast leadership experience around research culture and advancing diversity and inclusion within institutions.
Jane knows exactly what underrepresentation feels like. “I was the only woman in an entirely male department,” she says. “I have firsthand experience of the pressures that can bring. Now as Dean for Research Culture, I’m trying to ensure that we create an environment that really allows people to fulfil their potential. EDI is one aspect of that, but it’s also about ensuring there’s transparency and open decision-making so that people feel empowered. We don’t want bullying, harassment or discrimination on any basis. Our role as enablers of research is to try and ensure that we are not putting barriers in the way of people’s talent and creativity.”
As chair of the Lister’s Scientific Committee which evaluates applications to the annual Prize, Anne says it is important to monitor for diversity in the selection process: “We collect information about the diversity of applicants, and we look routinely at this in the Scientific Committee. The number of prizes each year is relatively small, so we look at the diversity data over a longer period of time. In our assessments, we’re looking for quality and so we have to be as blind as we can to who we’re awarding prizes to because our remit is to award excellence. But we do think about gender balance, ethnic diversity, and geographical diversity and trends over the longer term.”
One AI on the future
Anne and Jane are acutely aware of multiple challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Their insights and experience will add to the strategic thinking that shapes the Lister’s response to a rapidly evolving research landscape.
“Funding and political instability are massive concerns,” says Anne. “We don’t know what global superpowers are going to do next, we don’t know how that will affect global economies, and all of those things impact on research priorities, resources and ultimately the money we can give out. I think there are going to be some interesting challenges in terms of AI, too. That’s such a fast-moving area. We don’t know yet quite how that’s going to impact on the sorts of prize applications we get, but it is definitely going to have an impact.”
As a trustee for the Alan Turing Institute, member of EPSRC Council, and formerly working in the tech industry, Jane’s knowledge of computer science and AI will be immensely valuable as the Lister embraces AI-enabled research. “The great advances made by companies such as DeepMind are creating new playbooks for how research and discovery are driven,” she observes. “Still, it’s important that we support a rich ecosystem with a variety of different funding mechanisms and approaches, rather than solely the mass production approach that is appropriate for efforts like AlphaFold.”
Jane also worries about the current turmoil in higher education institutions. “Many universities are suffering difficult financial situations, and that’s unlikely to change without changes within the universities themselves. It’s unclear how that will affect smaller, focused and independent funders like the Lister. Our job as trustees is to make sure we are well informed and prepared for whatever change occurs so we can continue to support excellent biomedical science.”
The Lister will continue to evolve, but Anne and Jane are united in their commitment to serve the community as champions for early career researchers, and the Lister as a beacon of excellence, inclusion and innovation. “I have a very strong streak in me that wants to help other people, and I hope I can continue to do that,” Jane remarks, “both in helping my fellow Governing Body members and the Prize winners – maybe even those that are unsuccessful. We can think about how we can best support exciting biomedical science and help create the conditions, opportunities and funding for people to thrive.”
