Doctoral Festival of Ideas

Taking place on 23rd and 24th June 2026, this two-day event aims to celebrate and enhance our research culture

Bookings open 14 May 2026

Programme

This year's Doctoral Festival of Ideas 2026 confirmed programme

Tuesday 23 June 2026

Time	Description	Location
09:30 - 10:00	Breakfast and networking	Claverton Rooms
10:00 - 11:00	Festival opening and keynote speaker - Lieven Scheire	Claverton Rooms
11:00- 11:30	Coffee break	Claverton Rooms
11:30 - 12:30	Faculty doctoral student Flash Talks	Various
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch and poster competition	Claverton Rooms
14:15 - 15:45	Research Ethics Board Game launch	4W 1.2
19:30 - 21:00	The Lighter Side of Research: PhD comedy night	Burdall's Yard

Wednesday 24 June 2026

Time	Description	Location
10:00 - 12:00	Leadership in Action experiential workshop	4W 1.2
12:00 - 13:00	Lunch and market stalls	4 West Atrium
13:00 - 14:30	Faculty led talks and activities	Various
14:30 - 15:30	Bake Your Doctorate competition	Claverton Rooms

What to look out for this year

Festival highlights for 2026

This year’s festival promises to be a great platform for inspiring talks, workshops and interactive activities. With a programme boasting both intellectual rigour and whimsy, one thing we are very much looking forward to is the launch of our very own Research Ethics Board Game.

There’s also the chance to enjoy an evening of stand-up comedy. Lighter Side of Research, returns to Burdall’s Yard, where you’ll hear about doctoral students’ research experience through their very own stand-up routines.

We are also excited to host a student-led workshop centred on leadership skills. As part of the Doctoral College’s Leadership in Action programme, you can put your leadership skills to the test by exploring how to inspire collaboration and lead your team toward shared success.

Keynote speech

Lieven Scheire is a Belgian comedian, physicist and science communicator known for his unique blend of science and comedy.

Founder of Nerdland, he has created bestselling books, television programmes and the Nerdland Podcast, one of Belgium’s most popular podcasts, and leads the country’s largest science festival, Nerdland Festival.

He performs internationally with his English-language science shows and is currently touring the UK with his AI comedy show, Artificial Intelligence.

Lieven will show us how comedy can help spread key messages and help us to think about how we might use comedy skills to disseminate our research impact.

The Lighter Side of Research

Last year brought a brand-new addition to our festival programme. ‘The Lighter Side of Research: PhD research through humour’ was a comedy showcase hosted at Burdall’s Yard to a sold-out audience.

10 doctoral students across the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, performed original 7-minute comedy sketches inspired by their research. Under the guidance of a comedy writer, who also compèred the show, participants took part in a series of workshops, helping them craft and perform their sketches.

Building on last year’s successful debut, this year we’ll be returning to Burdall’s Yard for more funnies. We’ve continued our collaboration with the University of Bristol and are delighted to also be welcoming students from neighbouring Bath Spa University.

Lighter Side of Research participanting students

Bake Your Doctorate

The Bake Your Doctorate competition, where doctoral students create mouth-watering bakes based on their research, is fast becoming a mainstay of the Festival of Ideas.

This year, in homage to the University of Bath's 60th anniversary, bakers will be tasked with imagining what their research might look like in 60 years-time for an extra special "Bake to the Future" edition of Bake Your Doctorate.

How might your work evolve? What impact could it have? What does the future of your field look like? And how do you pack all that into a cake tin?

Workshops

This year, a number of interdisciplinary workshops will take place across the two days with an onus on inspiring creativity and real-world impact in the doctoral research community.

Research Ethics Board Game - we will launch our new research ethics and integrity cooperative board game. In this session you will get to experience the new game, working together to navigate ethical decisions, without losing motivation points!
Leadership in Action - you will have the opportunity to practice leadership in a fun, simulated experience. In this scenario, you'll need to work together to win points, How will you work as a team? What motivates you? What impact does this have on leadership?

In addition, there will be a number of Faculty specific workshops and activities. More details to come soon.