National Pathology Week 2026 - online events

National Pathology Week (NPW) is our annual celebration of pathology, when we highlight the important contribution pathologists make to healthcare. NPW 2026 will run from 2 to 8 November. The theme for 2026 is 'Welcome to the Lab' and the Pathology Alliance are delivering a series of 13 online events that extend through the whole of November.

Undergraduates, foundation doctors and trainee scientists (and any non-specialists interested in finding out more about pathology) are encouraged to attend these informative 1-hour events. Find out more and book your free place via the links below.

Spread the word about these events with the event flyer below.

NPW 2026 events e-flyer

Resources and ideas for running an NPW event in your area

We hope you are inspired by our 'Welcome to the Lab' theme to run an event or activity to highlight the importance of pathology, and share the work that pathology teams do to diagnose, prevent and treat disease.

You can request free promotional materials and careers booklets here - please submit your order by 21 October 2026 to receive materials in time for NPW. 

Our organiser guide below gives a range of ideas and useful links to support you in planning an event or activity in your hospital, workplace or local community. If you're running an event, please register it here so we can include in our list of public events.

Download our 'Get Involved' guide for organisers

Downloadable NPW logos and graphics

NPW 2026 logos

NPW 2026 logos

 

NPW 2026 social media assets

NPW 2026 social media assets

 

Further information about NPW

Working in partnership with pathologists and laboratory scientists, the Pathology Alliance has put together resources and events aimed at engaging people of all ages. We invite our individual members and supporters to get involved in NPW each November to help us improve public awareness and understanding of how pathologists and scientists diagnose disease. 

We welcome pathology-related events and activities of all sizes, and various formats (including online!), in our nationwide programme – we’ve got lots of ideas and free resources to help with planning and delivering great activities. You can request free promotional materials for your events and activities here. 

Become a Pathology Ambassador

We've teamed up with STEM Learning to provide our members with the opporutnity of signing up to the national STEM Ambassador scheme. More information is available in STEM Learning's handbook and leaflet provided below and on our Pathology Ambassadors page. Becoming a STEM Ambassador is a great way to get involved in engaging school age students with pathology.

STEM Learning information

A look back at previous years: 

NPW 2025

NPW 2025 ran from 3–9 November.  The theme for 2025 was 'Pathology Solutions'. Some of the highlights are below.

RCPath parliamentary event

The RCPath delivered a high-profile event, 'Pathology Solutions' at the House of Commons on 4 November. Dr Simon Opher MP, kindly sponsored this important event. You can find out about the highlights from this event in our news post.

Thank you to our Industry sponsors for this event: Novo Nordisk, Roche Diagnostics and Illumina. 
Novo Nordisk, Roche, and Illumina provided sponsorship to the Royal College of Pathologists to support the cost of this meeting. These sponsoring companies had no influence over the meeting agenda or arrangements.

International Pathology Day (IPD)

The RCPath’s IPD virtual conference on 5 November celebrated the vital contributions of pathology professionals around the world. This year’s theme was ‘The global pathology workforce’. You can find out more in the blog post about this event.

Thank you to Diagnexia and the British Society of Haematology for sponsoring this event.

Pathology Alliance online event for students

The College worked in partnership with the Pathology Alliance to deliver an engaging online event called ‘Pathology Solutions: how tests help patients’ on 5 November. The event was chaired by Dr Suzy Lishman CBE and 20 speakers working in a variety of pathology specialties presented short, snappy talks on different pathology tests. You can watch the videos we have created of each talk here. 

National Pathology Week 2024

National Pathology Week (NPW) 2024 ran from 4–10 November. Our theme for 2024 was 'Pathology is Vital'.

College-led activities

  • 4 November - Online event:  'Pathology Myths and Misconceptions' - A panel of fascinating speakers for a special webinar explored, and dispelled, some of the most common myths about pathology.
  • 6 November - Our annual conference:  International Pathology Day virtual conference - This year the topic was 'The rise of global antimicrobial resistance.'
  • 8 November - Lunctime webinar:  'From Bench to Bedside'. A RCPath collaboration with Roche Diagnostics UK. This free online event explored how greater collaboration between industry and academia can help accelerate frontline use of new diagnostic technologies. Watch the recording of this event here. 

Pathology Alliance

We delivered NPW in collaboration with other members of the Pathology Alliance – the organisations who are part of the Alliance are listed below.

National Pathology Week 2023

NPW 2023 ran from 19–25 June.  Our theme for 2023 was 'Pathologists and Patients'.

We highlighted the essential work pathologists and clinical scientists do to help patients and supported members and their teams to do the same around the UK.

College-led activities:

  • Our NPW Twitter competition challenged members and their teams to tweet a photo or video that summed up our theme
  • 19 June - RCPath Book Club featuring 'Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything' 
  • 21 June - Virtual Pathology Pub Quiz for Undergraduates 
  • 22 June - Art of Pathology Exhibition at the Annual Dinner drinks reception
  • 23 June - Virtual Veterinary Pathology Pub Quiz for Undergraduates (on Instagram)
  • 24 June -  Discovering Cells art-science workshop with Dr Lizzie Burns and histopathologist, Dr Stephanie Edwards.

National Pathology Week 2022

NPW 2022 ran from 20–26 June.  The theme was 'Pathology: past, present and future'. 

We moved the celebrations from November to June as part of the College's Diamond Jubilee.

College-led activities:

Watch the recordings of our NPW 2022 events

Foundation Lecture by Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam - 21 June 2022

Foundation Lecture by Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam - 21 June 2022