Annual meeting success ‘reflects growing interest and involvement in pain research across Scotland’

A 15^th Annual Scientific Meeting held this month to improve the understanding of chronic pain has been hailed a success, reflecting growing engagement with research in this area

The event, held at Malmaison Dundee on Friday 5 December, saw the Scottish Pain Research Community (SPaRC) and NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Pain Specialty Group welcome around 100 delegates with more registered than for any of its previous gatherings.

This included representation from people living with chronic pain — considered a significant part of the community.

The annual meeting saw some 20 guest speakers coming together to discuss topical issues, including Professor of Neurology & Neurobiology, David Bennett of Oxford University, an internationally recognised expert on neuropathic pain conditions, leading major consortia focused on better understanding and management of neuropathic pain.

Fellow keynote speaker was Brona Fullen, Associate Professor of University College Dublin, former President of the European Pain Federation (EFIC). Her research interests include the biopsychosocial assessment and management of chronic pain, leveraging online (2D) and virtual reality (3D) technology.

For the best oral presentations, congratulations went to Chris Grant for his talk on ‘Long-term opioid and gabapentinoid related harms among adults with chronic kidney disease and multimorbidity: a time-updated, population-based cohort study’.

Andrew Cooper was also recognised for his presentation on ‘Injured primary afferent neurons drive ongoing, spontaneous neuropathic pain’.

The best poster awards, voted for by attendees, went to:

Marcus Beasley — ‘Optimising fibromyalgia criteria: evidence from the UK Biobank’
Paula Fernandez — ‘A Single-cell Sorting Technique to Profile Canine Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons’
Shouq AlGhamdi — ‘Outcome measures and Implementation Strategies for Complex Interventions in Acute Pain Management Trials, A Scoping Review’

Professor Lesley Colvin, Chair of SPaRC and Clinical Lead of the NRS Pain Network, said: “We are very pleased with this month's event which we believe reflected our overarching aim of ensuring that clinical practice in managing chronic pain is informed by current research, and that conversely, such research is relevant to clinical practice.

“Aside from a diverse and engaging mix of speakers, even more abstracts were submitted this year than in 2024, reflecting the growing interest and involvement in pain research across Scotland, despite clinical and financial pressures.

“We remain committed to bringing together researchers, clinicians and people living with chronic pain, so that we can learn from each other, informing our research ideas and outputs, and fostering collaborations.”

NRS Pain brings together around 200 researchers in multiple disciplines and areas to promote collaboration while sharing and disseminating research activity and findings.

Publication date: 15th December 2025

Author: NHS Research Scotland

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