Postgraduate Research Conference 2025

2025 conference report

The University of Bradford hosted its inaugural Central Postgraduate Research (PGR) Conference on the 21st and 22nd October 2025, bringing together postgraduate researchers, academics, and professional staff from across the University and beyond for two days of inspiring discussions, presentations, and networking.

This was the first PGR conference to be held under the new Doctoral College, marking an exciting milestone in the University’s new structure. In previous years, individual faculties hosted their own research conferences, but this year’s event united all postgraduate researchers under one banner for the first time, creating a truly cross-disciplinary and collaborative space for sharing ideas.

The theme for 2025, “Breaking Boundaries: New Pathways to Reshaping Future Societies”, set the tone for an event designed to bridge research and society by fostering dialogue that challenges traditional boundaries between fields, sectors, and cultures. The conference provided a vibrant platform for postgraduate researchers from all disciplines and stages of study to explore interdisciplinary perspectives and demonstrate how their research can make a real difference in the world.

The two-day programme featured a mix of panel and lightning presentations delivered in person on day 1 and online on day 2, alongside interactive workshops and an insightful Early Career Researcher (ECR) panel discussion on work/life balance during the PhD journey.

In total, 47 postgraduate researchers presented their work across the two days, including 12 presenters from external universities such as the Universities of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam, York, Leeds Beckett, Huddersfield, Hull, Strathclyde, and Leeds. The event even welcomed an international participant from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India, who joined us online. This reflects not only the growing reach of the conference, but also the University’s ongoing commitment to global collaboration and knowledge exchange, and the value of maintaining an online element to enable distance learning.

The conference opened with an inspiring keynote address from Director of Doctoral College, Professor Eva Kipnis, who explored the importance of stepping outside one’s comfort zone, building collaborative relationships and research-informed networks that bridge sectors, and translating research to create impact beyond academia. These ideas resonated strongly with the conference theme and set the tone for the two days ahead. Director of the Institute of Health and Social Care, Professor Anant Paradkar also delivered a thought-provoking keynote on the second day, further emphasising the value of collaboration and innovation in research practice. The event began with a recorded welcome from PVC for Research and Innovation, Professor Sherif El-Khamisy, highlighting the University’s commitment to supporting a thriving and collaborative research culture.

As one attendee reflected, “The mix of panel and lightning talks was great, and opening it up to PGRs from other universities allowed the presentation and discussion of very different research which isn’t conducted at Bradford and opened up opportunities for wider collaboration.” Another added, “I loved the encouragement of cross-disciplinary communication by our keynotes. It is lovely to hear about the ethics-driven and thoughtful work that is being done, tackling the real-life issues we are facing.”

Prizes were awarded for the best presentations, with panel presentation winners selected by a judging panel made up of volunteers from both academic and professional staff across the University, and lightning presentation winners chosen by audience vote. Congratulations to:

• Best Panel Presentation: Ghaida Mustafa, University of Bradford – “A novel study on application of propolis (beehive product) as a green plasticizer for hot melt extrusion; reshaping the future of this process”
• Runner-up (Panel): Marie Frazer, University of Bradford – “More than participants: Reimagining children’s roles in citizen science and whole-system public health”
• Best Lightning Presentation: Ankit Mathur, University of Bradford – “Preventing Online Child Sexual Exploitation Using AI – A Proactive Risk-Assessment Framework”
• Runner-up (Lightning): Ho Chin Wei, University of Hull – “The Ethics of Seeing: Contextual Moderation of Altered Image Acceptability”

The organising committee, made up of PGR volunteers with support from the Research Culture Team, would like to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to making the event such a success, including presenters, attendees, judges, workshop and panel facilitators, and ECR panellists. Sincere thanks also go to our sponsors Morrisons, Impact Hub Yorkshire, and Brad-ATTAIN for their generous support.

The energy, insight, and collaboration on display across both days truly reflected the creativity and commitment of our postgraduate research community, breaking boundaries, challenging perspectives, and helping to reshape future societies.