Nominee Stories
Harriet Edwards
Director, Regulatory Affairs at Boyds'
Communication Award finalist 2024 - part of the Boyds' Podcast Team.
Harriet is part of the Boyds’ Podcast Team, UK and USA, who were finalists in the ‘Communication’ award category at the 2024 TOPRA Awards for Regulatory Excellence. In this interview, she discusses the vision for the podcast and the benefits of podcasts as a way of consuming key regulatory information.
Q: How did you feel when you were nominated?
It's such a pleasant surprise to receive the e-mail to say that you've been nominated, and then to later be shortlisted is an even greater honour. It’s a wonderful thing to get that recognition from TOPRA.
Q: What does this recognition mean to you, both personally and professionally?
On a professional level, it's a huge endorsement that the work we're doing at Boyds is at the forefront of regulatory affairs and that we’re up there with the best that our industry has to offer. The podcast is something that we truly believe in, but to be recognised by our peers, and by TOPRA, really reinforces that. It's recognition that we're striving to be the best that we can be.
On a personal level, it's incredibly humbling and rewarding. It's something that means you’re progressing in your career and if that's what you’re striving to do, having that recognition is really validating and very important. To be recognised by people that you find inspiring and consider to be the best of the best within the industry is really special.
Q: What would you say to encourage people to nominate their friends and colleagues for the awards?
The Awards event provides a great platform to celebrate everything that's positive about regulatory affairs. It provides an opportunity for us to learn about other areas of regulatory affairs, to learn about people that are doing great work within the industry, and it hopefully inspires people to perhaps consider something new or just reinforces that what they're doing is really valuable.
I also think it opens the door for potential networking, maybe even new careers. There are many people who have received job offers or changed the focus of their careers as a result of being nominated, for a TOPRA Award. It really is a valuable platform to showcase the very best of what regulatory affairs has to offer.
The more people who nominate, the more we get to learn about all of the inspiring work that's happening, and the more we get to showcase the best talent we have within regulatory affairs. There is so much good work going on within the industry and so it's a really good way of celebrating that.
Regulatory affairs is very niche and, unless you're working within the industry, the chances are, you won't know a lot about it. Often even people within other areas of the drug development space don't know what regulatory affairs people do. So, having the top talent within one room and learning about different areas of regulatory affairs that you perhaps don't usually work with can only be seen as a positive.
It's a big statement to say it's life changing, but being a previous winner of the communications award definitely changed the trajectory of my career. I’ve met so many people through the Awards and through all the initiatives I’m involved with at TOPRA.
The Rising Stars award, aimed at people who have just started out in their regulatory affairs career, is especially important. Often, if you’re new in the profession, you don't get recognised internally or externally because you're usually behind a well-established regulatory manager as the primary contact point. So having an award specifically for up-and-coming talent is really valuable.
Q: What was the most rewarding aspect of being part of the Awards journey?
So many aspects of the Awards journey are rewarding. With respect to being nominated for the Communication Award, it’s being positively recognised by our peers and industry leaders for doing something worthwhile. What we did with the podcast was a bit out-of-the-box for regulatory communication, so to be recognised was incredibly gratifying.
More broadly, being part of the Awards journey, not just the ceremony at the end, but the whole process, allows you to learn more about all the positive things happening within the industry. Learning about particularly talented individuals and teams is something that’s really inspiring.
On the flip side, the process of actually nominating someone is also incredibly rewarding because you're giving somebody, who perhaps wouldn't normally shout about themselves, a platform to be recognised by their industry peers. For me, that's probably more rewarding than being on the receiving end of a nomination.
The Awards application is not a short thing to do, and rightly so, but knowing that someone's nominated you and they've taken that time, probably outside of work hours, to do that really means a lot.
I think people forget about the value of nominating someone because you see the headline of whether you've won or whether you haven't. And then you take the award and off you go. But actually, the night itself – getting everybody together at a fancy event – is so valuable and enjoyed by so many. I've never been to a TOPRA Awards ceremony and not had a good night, even if I’ve not won.