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ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Researcher School

Past PGR events

Since 2018, the Festival of Doctoral Research - latterly ßÏßÏÊÓƵDocFest - has showcased the work of our postgraduate researchers (PGRs) at Sussex.

ßÏßÏÊÓƵDocFest was an annual festival celebrating all things postgraduate research, alongside the ECR Symposium for early career researchers (ECRs). It brought together our PGR community to learn, share, and connect with others across the University. 

As part of the Summer of Research, our festival events continue to shine a spotlight on ßÏßÏÊÓƵ postgraduate research, and highlight the crucial contributions PGRs make to the broader research environment. Check out this year's schedule on our main Celebrating Emerging Researchers page.

Take a look back at previous festival highlights.

ßÏßÏÊÓƵDocFest 2024

For the best viewing experience, open the Sway in full screen. The accessibility view provides a high-contrast design and screen reader access.

Programme of events
  • Pathways to Success: Leveraging your research skills for career progress
  • Catalysing Connections networking event
  • Neurodivergent PGRs Lived Experience Panel
  • Approaches to Neurodiversity and Postgraduate Research
  • Creative Outlets Craft and Chat Session - Rune Crafting
  • Interdisciplinary Research: How to get started panel and Q&A
  • Speed Collaborating and Poster Presentations
  • PGR/ECR Cross-Discipline Speed Mentoring
  • Research Image and Poster Competition Exhibition
  • Keynote: Research 'impact' - what, why and how to get it: Perspectives from a 27-year postdoctoral career
  • PGR Film Screening - Menopause: The Movie 
  • RLI Showcase and Networking Lunch
  • Impactful PGR Research Panel
  • Three Minute Thesis Final
  • Wellness Walk through Stanmer Park (led by Hive Scholars) 
  • End-of-year Barbecue

Research Image Competition 2024

First place: Elizabeth Cross (Brighton & ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Medical School), Second place: Shaadil Shah Mandarry (Mathematical and Physical Sciences), People's Choice: Katie Allan (Life Sciences)

An infrared image of a persons legs with hot areas showing red and cold areas blue The outside of a concreate building with graffiti covering one wall depicting colorful scientific equipment two people standing under a willow tree at night with a piece of scientific equipment to measure bat movement

View all Image competition enteries here

Research Poster Competition 2024

First place: Alice Clark (Life Sciences), Second place: Joshua Francis (Psychology), People's Choice Award: Magdalena Pfaff (Life Sciences)

Academic Poster by Alice Clark - COST-EFFORT ANALYSIS OF BRUV AND eDNA IN MONITORING MARINE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES academic poster by Joshua Francis - The Impact of School Transitions on Children's Appearance-based Comparisons and Body Image Academic poster by Magdalena Pfaff - DMN and the 4-day working week

View all Poster competition enteries here

Three Minute Thesis

First place: Sunisha Neupane (Institute of Development Studies), Second place:Emily Whelan (Psychology), Third Place: Leonard Chimanda Joseph (Law, Politics and Sociology)

View more about the 3MT here

Festival of Doctoral Research 2023

For the best viewing experience, open the Sway in full screen. The accessibility view provides a high-contrast design and screen reader access.

 

Programme of events
  • Excursions 10-Year Anniversary Art Exhibition
  • Navigating the job market as a PGR: insights from PhD employers 
  • HIVE Holding Space - What's in it for PGRs? 
  • Workshop: Introduction to Ethics (ONLINE)
  • Creative Outlets Craft and Chat Session
  • Research Image and Poster Competition Exhibition
  • 'Write Your PhD Story in 100 Words' Exhibition 
  • Three Minute Thesis Final
  • Prize-giving Ceremony
  • Networking Lunch
  • Impactful PhD Research Panel
  • End of year Barbecue

Research Image Competition 2023

First place: Diana Ramirez Sarmiento (Institute of Development Studies), Second place: Sarah Stephens (Institute of Development Studies), People's Choice: Georgios Kafetzis (Life Sciences)

hands of four different people drawing leaves and flowers on a large white piece of paper with colored felt tip pens two women in Tanzania, one woman is holding a baby and looking at her phone while the other looks at the phone over her shoulder an image of the underside of a manta ray pressed up against the glass of a tank

Research Poster Competition 2023

First place: Samuel Wray (Life Sciences), Second place: Dip Kumar Saha (Engineering & Informatics), People's Choice Award: Ahmad Ali Shariati (Law, Politics and Sociology)

Academic poster by Samuel Wray - Interoception and the 4-day working week Academic poster by Dip Kumar Saha - Bioinspired Fully Untethered Soft Actuator with Self-sensing Capability Academic poster by Ahmad Ali Shariati - Developing a Regime of States’ Responsibility for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in International Law

Three Minute Thesis

First place: Dominka Varga (Psychology), Second place: Imelda Dwi Rosita Sari (Education and Social Work), Third place: Heather Williams (Institute of Development Studies)

View more about the 3MT here

Festival of Doctoral Research 2022

For the best viewing experience, open the Sway in full screen. The accessibility view provides a high-contrast design and screen reader access.

 

Programme of events
  • Excursions Journal vol.12: Online Launch Party
  • Drop-in Careers Advice
  • Research with Impact Day: Research Showcase
  • Research with Impact Day: Professional Services Drop-ins 
  • Research with Impact Day: Impact Question Time
  • ShapePhD Creative Outlets Craft and Chat
  • Panel Event - Thesis to Book: How to get published
  • Research Hive Wellbeing Walk
  • Drop-in Careers Advice
  • TEDx Viewing Party
  • Library Pub Quiz
  • RDP Workshop: Understanding the PhD Job Market
  • Research Image and Poster Competition Exhibition
  • Networking Lunch and Market Place
  • Three Minute Thesis Final
  • Prize-giving Ceremony 
  • ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Humanities Lab Make/Create Drop-in Day
  • End of year Barbecue
  • Research Image and Research Poster Showcase
  • Make It Happen: PhD Careers interview recordings

Research Image Competition 2022

First place: Alice Torjussen (Engineering & Informatics), Second place: Eleni Christoforidou (Life Sciences), People's Choice Award: Jorge Ortiz Moreno (Institute of Development Studies)

Image by Alice Torjussen - Investigating the overlap in usability of accessible switches and buttons for disabled users and dogs Image by Eleni Christoforidou - Neurons that innervate muscles Image by Jorge Ortiz Moreno - A rainwater coffee

View all Image competition entries here

Research Poster Competition 2022

First place: Kieran O'Malley (Life Sciences), Second place: Alice Torjussen (Engineering & Informatics), People's Choice Award: Clemence Compain (Engineering & Informatics) and Belinda Zakrzewska (ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Business School)

Academic poster by Kieran O'Malley - The use of acoustic monitoring as a means to detect colonies of the barbastelle bat Barbastella b a rbastellus ) within woodlands Academic poster by Alice Torjussen - Investigating Dogs' Perceptions of Disembodied Technology Academic poster by Clemence Compain - Intrinsic decision biases are under cognitive control Academic poster by Belinda Zakrzewska - Disguising cultural appropriation as appreciation: The case of Peruvian elite chefs

View all Poster competition entries here

Three Minute Thesis

First place: Belinda Zakrzewska (ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Business School), Second place: Jorge Ortiz Moreno (Institute of Development Studies), Third place: Karen Hiestand (Psychology)

View more about the 3MT here

Festival of Doctoral Research 2021

Research Poster Competition

  • 1st Prize: Brontë McDonald (Psychology)
  • Runner-up: Fiona Walker (Psychology)
  • People's Choice: Swati Bhargava (Business School)

Research Image Competition

  • 1st Prize: Gabriel Popham (Global Studies)
  • Runner-up: Ishrat Khan (Global Studies)
  • People's Choice: Maggie Xiao (Life Sciences)

Programme of events

  • Quick Queries: Drop-in Careers Advice
  • Campus Walk
  • Workshop: How to Adapt your PhD During a Pandemic: Mapping Alternative Routes to Completion
  • Workshop: Understanding Publication Metrics
  • Excursions Journal (Re)Connect Launch and 10th Anniversary Art Exhibition
  • Webinar: Effective Job Search Strategies
  • Panel: Adapting to Change: interruptions, challenges and responses
  • Open Access Mystery
  • Festival Keynote - Kindness and Wellbeing: Why Social and Emotional Dimensions of Learning Matter
  • Prize-giving Ceremony
  • LGBTQ+ Pride Wikipedia Editathon!
  • Workshop: LGBTQ+ Inclusivity Workshop for Researchers
  • PhD Creative Outlets Crafting Social
  • Workshop: Seeking Balance in Doctoral Life
  • Research Hive Happy Hour and Thesis on a Postcard Exhibition
  • Research Image and Research Poster Showcase
  • Research Hive Thesis on a Postcard Competition
Festival of Doctoral Research 2020

Programme of events - the 2020 Festival was held entirely online due to the Covid pandemic

  • Workshop: Preparing Impactful Research Proposals - UEA Online Training Series
  • Webinar: The Scholars Programme
  • Panel Discussion: Finishing your doctorate
  • Workshop: Introduction to Open Access Publishing
  • Quick Queries: Drop-in Career Advice
  • Games Night
  • Workshop: Networking and LinkedIn
  • Online Yoga session from ßÏßÏÊÓƵsport
  • Three Minute Thesis Finals
  • Wikipedia Edit-a-thon (Library)
  • Workshop: Looking After Yourself During the PhD
  • Hive Scholars' Quiz Evening
  • Ethical Review - What it means to you and your research
  • PhD Crafternoon
  • Research Image and Research Poster Showcase
  • Research Hive Quaran-Time Capsule
  • Daily Morning Check-Ins
  • I Am The Doctor: Viva Survivor Soundtrack!
  • PGR Publications
Festival of Doctoral Research 2019

Three Minute Thesis Competition

  • 1st Prize: Noora Nevala
  • Runner-up: Heidi Cobham
  • People's Choice: Chris Mackin

Research Image Competition

  • 1st Prize: Evie Browne
  • Runner-up: Alexandros Daniilidis
  • People's Choice: Raphaël Lebrun-Gallagher

Research Poster Competition

  • 1st Prize: Paul Shuttleworth
  • Runner-up: Abrar Almjaly
  • People's Choice: Meirin Oan Evans
Festival of Doctoral Research 2018

Research Image Competition

Fieldwork Category

  • 1st Prize: Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin.
  • Runner-up: Theresa Gooda

Science Category

  • 1st Prize: Nephtali Garrido-Gonzalez
  • Runner-up: Martin Jung

People's Choice

  • Perpetua Kirby

Three Minute Thesis

  • 1st Prize: Jo Cutler
  • 2nd Prize: Dorieke Grijseels
  • People's Choice: Ireena Nasiha Ibnu

Tweet Your Thesis

  • 1st Prize: Anna Watson

 

If you have any queries about ßÏßÏÊÓƵDocFest, get in touch with us at researcher-development@sussex.ac.uk. 

ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Researcher School

E: researcher-school@sussex.ac.uk