Author Archives: Simone Apel
UON Researchers showcase inspirational research at Annual Research Conference
UON’s Annual Research Conference 2024, “Strength in Diversity”, held on June 25th and 26th, featured a diverse range of inspirational and impactful research, showcased over a 2-day event. The first day, in-person at Waterside, kicked off with a research artefacts exhibition where people were encouraged to touch the exhibits; play games, wear scarves, look into microscopes and read a range of books authored by our researchers. Dr Cathy Smith, Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange, opened the conference and announced the winners of the annual Images of Research Competition. Lewis Collins & Sonika Divakar won the Judge’s Vote, with a runner up place to Karen Anthony. The Public Vote competition was won by Postgraduate Researcher, Adil Farooq.
Read the rest of this entryImages of Research 2024: voting now open!
The Graduate School’s 2024 Images of Research (IoR) is now open for ‘People’s Choice’ voting. This year we have a collection of 23 fabulous research images from across the university. IoR showcases research in a unique way – researchers produce an original image, which can be a photograph or artwork, and write a short, engaging summary describing how the image links to their research. This results in an exciting exhibition, showcasing UON’s research diversity.
To vote for your favourites, view the Images of Research Brochure, (you can download the file at the bottom of this news item), then choose your favourite two in the IoR 2024 Voting Form. Please vote for your favourite two in no particular order, taking into account BOTH the image and the abstract. As a guide, a winning image would be one that:
* Is visually appealing AND
* Has an accompanying abstract which is well written, clearly connects with the image and ensures viewers, who know nothing about the research topic, will understand and find interest in the research presented.
The People’s Choice closes on June 20th at midnight. Please note that there is only one entry allowed per person.
Read the rest of this entryGraduate School Update Day 2024 – Research Culture and Community at UON
Our Graduate School Update Day will run on Tuesday 4th June from 9:30-3:30pm. This annual event is for postgraduate researchers and their supervisors to come together to discuss topics of interest. This year we will be discussing the importance of developing and maintaining a strong research culture and community at UON – in supervision, in PGR development and in our research degree support across the university. Dr Neil Radford from the University of Derby is joining us for these discussions – Neil is the external examiner for UON’s Supervisor Development Programme.
The day will also include a session on research degree policy changes, an introduction to Images of Research 2024, which will be open for voting, and an overview of the upcoming Annual Research Conference later in June.
Lunch vouchers will be available for a free lunch for all attendees. You can attend for all or just part of the day. Please see the schedule below for full information and go to Gateway for booking your place.
EMDoc PGR Conference 2024: Call for abstracts from PGRs
The call for abstracts is open for the 2024 EMDoc PGR conference. If you are studying for a doctorate at UON you are eligible to apply. EMDoc consists of nine Midlands universities who are keen to work collaboratively to share best practice, resources and insights into doctoral research across all disciplines. The EMDoc Conference is a great opportunity for PGRs to discuss and promote their research as well as network with other researchers from across the East Midlands.
This year’s conference will be hosted online by the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, and will take place online on 25th September 2024. UON PGRs are invited to submit abstracts for the conference (submission deadline Monday 10th June).
The theme for the 2024 EMDoc conference is ‘Collaborations, Connections and Positive Change: Imagining Possible Futures Through Research’. This event seeks to support cross-disciplinary
and cross-institutional dialogue and collaboration, inviting contributions from PGRs working across subject areas.
Come along to the 2024 Postgraduate Researcher Poster Competition!
The Graduate School would like to invite you to their 17th Annual Postgraduate Researcher Poster Competition on Thursday 23rd May 2024, 11am to 2pm, in the Owl’s Nest on the ground floor of the Learning Hub, Waterside campus. The poster competition is a development opportunity for doctoral research students, who present their research on a research poster, giving short 1-1 verbal presentations alongside. Come along to meet some of our PGRs and learn about their research!
Read the rest of this entryUON Research Conference 2024 – call for submissions deadline extended to 13th May!

The call for submissions for our Annual Research Conference is open to all researchers at UON, so whether you are a PGR student, an early career or more experienced researcher you can apply to present your research on Tuesday 25th June (on campus) and/or on Wednesday 26th June (online). You have the choice of a 15 min oral presentation, chairing a round table discussion, facilitating a workshop, presenting a 20/20 Pecha Kucha (20 slides, each for 20 secs!), designing a research poster/infographic for an online collection or submitting an artefact/object for a ‘touch the exhibits’ display on campus. You can enter as many of these categories as you would like. The call closes at midnight on 13th May. To enter read on…..
Read the rest of this entryDr.App: NEW video support for postgraduate researchers & their supervisors
The Graduate School has purchased licences for Dr.App., designed for PGRs and staff supervising research degrees. Dr.App is an online video resource covering everything from working with supervisors and preparing for the viva examination to coping with stress and mental health challenges, from research impact to presentation and networking skills. It has content PGRs should find helpful at every stage of a research degree, in any discipline. For supervisors there are a number of videos on good, supportive supervision. More than 8 hours of videos are organised into topics for easy reference and are developed in association with academic consultant Prof John Wakeford of The Missenden Centre. To access the resource follow the information in the flyer attached below.
Read the rest of this entryCall for Posters from PGRs! Enter the Postgraduate Researcher Poster Competition 2024
The Graduate School has launched the call for entries for the 17th Annual PGR Poster Competition, which will be held on campus on Thursday May 23rd. Our Poster Competition is open to all doctoral students at UON and is an excellent development opportunity for presenting research, for improving communication and for networking with other doctoral researchers & visiting staff. The Entry Form is here, the new deadline for entering is April 29th. You have until May 23rd to produce and print an A1 landscape poster, which you need to bring with you. There will be Amazon voucher prizes to win – £100 for the winner and 2x £75 for the runners up!
Read the rest of this entryIt’s live! The new NILE site for PGRs and research degree Supervisors.
RES001 Researcher Development, the Graduate School’s NILE site for over 10 years, has been replaced by a brand new site called RES003 The Graduate School Resource Bank. For both postgraduate researchers and their supervisors, this new site has fresh new content, is easier to navigate and now is the one-stop place to answer questions on doing and supervising a research degree at the University of Northampton. This is a brief run-down of content….
Read the rest of this entryCall for organisers: UON Annual Research Conference 2024
The University of Northampton’s Annual Research Conference is a 2-day conference which gives UON researchers, from Postgraduate Researchers to Professors, an opportunity to present their research.

This year we are, again, offering the conference organisation opportunity to a Faculty or group of Centres. The chosen group will set a (broad, inclusive) theme for the Conference, choose a Lead Organiser and convene a conference organising committee to deliver the event. The Conference will run on 25th and 26th June – 25th June in the Leatherseller’s Hide, Learning Hub and the 26th will be online. There are funds available to support the organisation of this conference.
If you are interested in applying in your Faculty or Centre/Institutes (or group of Centres/Institutes) please read the document below where you will find guidance on how to apply.
Closing date for applications is 22nd January 2024. The chosen organising committee will be announced in late January.





