The Study Zone helpdesk is situated in the Student Services Centre. We offer online and in-person support in preparing your submission to the Showcase. See how Study Zone can help.
Undergraduate Research Showcase
Entries for the 2025 Showcase are now OPEN
Looking to get your research noticed?
Make key connections for your career
Your chance to exhibit at a national conference
2025 Undergraduate Research Showcase
The Undergraduate Research Showcase (UGRS) is a group of various student research activities that run through the year, culminating in an online annual exhibition. There are three key ways to take part:
1. Posters in Parliament
Usually taking place at some point in February or March each year, this sees student delegates from 25+ Universities showcasing their research in poster format at an afternoon exhibition in the Houses of Parliament and attended by MPs and policy makers. Each University can only send two students.
To compete for a fully-funded place to represent the University of Exeter at this year's event on 5 March 2025, please see the separate guidance. Entries to compete are now open, closing on Monday 27 January.
2. British Conference of Undergraduate Research
Commonly shortened to BCUR, this annual conference takes place during the spring vacation and will take place in 2025 at the University of Newcastle on 9-10 April. The entry and judging process to present will be managed by the University of Newcastle. Entries to present are now open, closing at 23:59 on Sunday 2 February. To enter, visit the Newcastle BCUR website.
We encourage students from across the University of Exeter to enter to present at BCUR if you are interested. Our team is on hand to provide advice and guidance about the submission process, and to support you in putting together your proposal. Although we cannot guarantee acceptance at BCUR, our team will also aim to support as many accepted Exeter submissions as possible in covering the costs of attending the conference. We have funds to assist with travel, registration fees, and accommodation. For more information, see our guidance on BCUR.
3. Annual Exhibition
All entries to our Posters in Parliament competion, and all accepted entries to BCUR, gain automatic entry to showcase their work within the University of Exeter at our exhibition later in the year. Once the deadlines for Posters in Parliament and BCUR have closed, we will still accept proposals to present at the University's internal exhibition. The date of the 2025 event is yet to be announced.
Have any questions or need help with your submission?
If you are interested in taking part, but want to know a bit more, or have questions about eligibility criteria to any of the three activities, or what makes a good submission, you can speak to the team during one of our online drop-ins hosted online at the following times. Please use this Microsoft Teams link to join in the drop-in at the designated time.
- Thursday 12 December, 10:30-11:30
- Tuesday 17 December, 14:30-15:30
- Wednesday 18 December, 12:00-13:00
- Friday 10 January, 12:30-13:30
- Monday 13 January, 10:30-11:30
- Wednesday 15 January, 12:30-13:30
- Friday 17 January, 14:30-15:30
- Tuesday 21 January, 14:30-15:30
- Thursday 23 January, 11:30-12:30
For more detailed advice and guidance about writing and presenting research effectively, please also check out the resources and support available from Study Zone.
The Undergraduate Research Showcase is a fantastic way to network with other students and promote your research. It will develop your communication skills and help you get noticed on applications for funding and further study. If you are considering studying for a research degree, such as a PhD, this is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate experience in disseminating your contribution within an academic environment to the public and wider university community.
In addition, students who attend Posters in Parliament get the opportunity to meet MPs, policy makers, and delegates from other Universities promoting their research in poster format. For students attending the BCUR conference, this is a fantastic opportunity to meet and network with hundreds of students from across the UK and further afield, all presenting their own research in different formats.
Participation in any of the Showcase activities can be counted towards your Exeter Award hours, which can help you to develop your employability as a researcher even further.
Do I need to be an undergraduate to submit?
No. For Posters in Parliament, recent alumni who have graduated in the last year are eligible to submit research they completed as an undergraduate. If you graduated from your undergraduate degree in Summer or Christmas 2024, you are eligible to submit to the 2025 Showcase. The BCUR Conference has its own separate entry criteria, please consult with their website for more information.
Do I need to include references on my poster submission?
Yes. Just like any university submission, it must include references. When submitting a poster, we ask that you include the references at the bottom of your work. Examples of this can be found on the previous submissions page.
Does my research have to correlate to the subject I study?
No. Most commonly, students decide to submit research in the field they are currently doing their degree course in but that is not compulsory. As long as the research is conducted to university-level argumentation and is referenced correctly, we welcome students to research outside of their degree course.
I have never created a research poster or written an abstract before – where should I start?
Head over to the submissions guidance page for tips, templates and checklists. Make sure to also check out the previous submissions page to get a good idea of what a typical submission looks like.
You can also attend a drop-in session either with the Showcase Team (times on the page above), or head along to a Study Zone drop-in session for help with your submission.
Can I still submit if my research is incomplete?
We recommend that writing a research poster is easiest when your findings and analysis are complete, so Posters in Parliament is usually best suited to finished work. If your work is still to be completed through this year, we would definitely recommend you still submit a proposal to BCUR; you can give your preliminary conclusions in your application and the abstract of your presentation, and your work is most likely to be finished by the time of the conference in April.
Can I submit research as part of a group?
Yes, you are allowed to submit research as a group to Posters in Parliament or BCUR. Please ensure that all names of students submitting are on the research (please see this previous example as a guide); multiple presenters will be allowed to present at any internal events we invite you to take part in, and BCUR may also allow joint submissions. However, please note that we will only be able to send one representative per poster to those winning entries chosen to attend Posters in Parliament; you must consider who will attend if you are entering a group poster to be considered for this event.
“I think it’s really useful to participate in the [British] Undergraduate Research Conference if you get the chance, it’s a unique experience that’s different from anything you’ll do at university yourself, and it’ll set you up really well for the future if you want to continue into an academic career, or even if you just want to go into something that involves talking to the public. It’s a real core set of skills that will be useful for whatever you want to do.”
Ben Fisher, Biosciences
“The Posters in Parliament event has truly helped to break down the walls in accessing academia as an undergraduate student. Presenting in parliament has built my confidence in presenting to researchers and succinctly summarising my research to an expert judging panel. It was a privilege to see the incredible research by other students from universities nationwide, and it illustrated how our work as students could potentially impact future government policy. I am so glad that I attended Posters in Parliament and that I received a commendation by the judges for my work on Social Prescribing. I would encourage anyone to apply and to make the most out of a fantastic opportunity!”
Daisy Kirtley, BMBS Medicine and Surgery
"Coming to this conference (BCUR) has been a really great opportunity. It’s given us the challenge of having to translate our research, which is from quite a technical field, to non-experts. And an audience, some of which haven’t come from a background of science and medicine, and that in itself is a skill I think we can apply to our future careers in medicine. In terms of having to translate diagnoses and treatments to patients, being a really key aspect of communication with patients and ultimately affecting how they’re cared for."
Lucy Hoades, Medical Sciences