We are delighted to welcome you to the COMPASS final Annual Scientific Meeting being held at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in partnership with the BMJ. COMPASS is a UK supportive and palliative cancer care research collaborative funded by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) for 5 years, which aims to further research into the development, evaluation and implementation of complex interventions to improve the supportive and palliative care (SuPaC) of people living with cancer and other serious illnesses. Centred around research groups at the University of Edinburgh, King's College London and the University of Leeds, the collaborative links together researchers from more than a dozen institutions across the UK. The Annual Scientific Meetings organised by COMPASS provide an important opportunity for the research community to meet to hear about the latest research in this area and to make the personal links that are so important to establish and strengthen collaborative research. …