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Doctoral Festival of Ideas

Join us on 17th and 18th June 2025 for the Doctoral Festival of Ideas, open to all students and staff at the University of Bath, as well as the general public.

Doctoral Festival of Ideas 2025

A provisional programme for the Festival can be viewed here. We hope to publish a full programme in April 2025, with bookings opening May 2025.


Tuesday 17 June 2025

Time Description Location
09:00 - 09:45 Breakfast and speed networking 4W Atrium
09:45 - 10:00 Doctoral Festival of Ideas Opening Remarks - Prof Joe Devine, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Doctoral) Hybrid
10:00 - 11:00 Keynote speaker - to be announced Hybrid
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break and networking 4W Atrium
11:30 - 12:30 Slice of Research: Doctoral Researcher Presentations Hybrid
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch, poster display and networking 4W Atrium
14:00 - 16:00 Workshops - themes to be announced Hybrid
19:30 - 21:30 The Lighter Side of Research: PhD research through humour Burdall's Yard, Bath

Wednesday 18 June 2025

Time Description Location
09:30 - 12:30 Faculty research sessions In person
11:00 - 12:00 Doctoral speed networking - meet other PGRs In person
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch, poster display and networking 4W Atrium
14:00 - 15:30 Faculty Doctoral Researcher Alumni Panel Sessions Hybrid
15:45 - 17:30 Bake Your Doctorate competition 4W Atrium

Bake Your Doctorate


Bake Your Doctorate is back for 2025! The competition will bring together Doctoral researchers from across the university to showcase their research bakes.

The judging panel, University staff and a local bakery owner, will select their favourite creation. In addition, a people's choice winner will be decided by the audience.

Do join us to find out more about the amazing research taking place, plus for a taste of plenty of cake!

Interested in taking part in the competition?
Claire's baked product representing 'Do sex ratios affect the mating system and parental care in shorebirds?'

The Lighter Side of Research


We've got a brand new comedy development programme that will see up to 10 Doctoral Researchers work with a comedy writer, Chris Head, to develop some content for a fun and engaging show at Burdall's Yard, Bath.

Come along to the show on Tuesday 17 June 2025, 19:30. Tickets are £10 general admission, and £5 for University of Bath cardholders. You can purchase tickets from Burdall's Yard website.

Fancy taking part as a comedian?
Lighter Side of Research Event Logo

Slice of Research


There will be plenty of opportunities for you to hear from our doctoral researchers about their research projects. Our Slice of Research session features 3 or 4 researchers talking about their work in 10 minutes, followed by a short Q&A session. We'll have a number of parallel sessions for you to choose from and the themes for these sessions will be announced later.

Interested in giving a talk?
Student giving a presentation

Poster display


Last year we had over 30 posters from doctoral researchers at different stages of their doctorates and on different types of programmes, e.g. professional doctorates. The poster display will be back for 2025 and you'll be able to view these all day on the 17 and 18 June 2025 in our main Festival foyer area of 4 West, Level 1.

During the lunches on both 17 and 18 June 2025, our poster contributors will be around to talk about their work and for you to ask any questions.

For those of you who are unable to come to the Festival in person we will have a digital library of all of the posters that you will be able to view in your own time.

Do you want to submit a poster?
Poster display, Festival of Ideas 2024

Contact us

If you have any questions about the Doctoral Festival of Ideas 2025 or want to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact the Doctoral Development Team.