UKSBM 2026

Pre-conference Workshops will be held on Monday 27 April at the University of Sheffield.

There is a nominal £15 charge per workshop to cover workshop costs

A campus map is here: click here

Accessibility information including parking is here: click here

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Workshop 1: Jen Brown and Rachel Hawkins - Participatory Systems Mapping (1.5 hrs)

13.30-15.00
Location: The Diamond, Computer Room 4, University of Sheffield

During the workshop participants will be introduced to the method of participatory systems mapping, its added value, and considerations for inclusive approaches. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their own participatory systems map during the workshop, working in small groups. There will also be plenty of time for questions and answers.

Workshop 2: Ian Kellar and João Craveiro - AI and Automation in evidence synthesis (2hrs)

14.00-16.00
Location: The Diamond, Computer Room 2, University of Sheffield

The workshop will be practical - the goal of the workshop is for you to leave confident that you can develop system instructions and structured prompts, and validate their reliability. We're going to look at some of the risks that can limit the reliability of LLMs in evidence synthesis, like context rot and positional bias, and how prompting strategies and workflows can mitigate these. We'll be focusing on a couple of key steps in evidence synthesis:

Structured summaries for screening: Developing chain of thought prompts that generate high-density structured summaries to assist in full-text inclusion/exclusion decisions.
Data Extraction: Learning how to use expert judgments in "few-shot" prompts to improve the accuracy of extracted data points.

Finally, we'll give you support to apply what you learn about developing prompts and workflows to other steps in evidence synthesis so you leave feeling confident that you can apply what you learn once the workshop is over. Previous students have made bots to support PRISMA compliant reporting and generated summaries to support MMAT judgements.

Who is this for? You don’t need prior experience with LLMs or prompting. However, you do need experience with the systematic review process.

Workshop 3: Carla Girling and Jen Brown - How to be a good Chief Investigator: working with a Clinical Trials Unit (1.5 hrs)

15.30-17.00
Location: The Diamond, Computer Room 4, University of Sheffield

Participants will be introduced to the responsibilities and role of the Chief Investigator and the practicalities of collaborating with a Clinical Trials Unit (CTU). The workshop combines CTU perspectives with first-hand researcher experience. The workshop will help researchers confidently transition into trial leadership roles.

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