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

Find out what is happening during the Festival of Ideas 2025 and book onto sessions.

Tuesday 17 June 2025

Time	Description	Location
09:00 - 09:45	Breakfast and speed networking	4W Atrium
09:45 - 11:00	Festival Welcome and Keynote - The Name of The Game: Navigating Academia, Professor Jason Arday	Hybrid
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee break and networking	4W Atrium
11:30 - 12:45	Slice of Research: Presentations by Doctoral Researchers	Hybrid
12:45 - 14:15	Lunch, poster display and networking	4W Atrium
14:15 - 16:15	Parallel workshops for doctoral researchers: Enterprise, Public engagement and Research with Impact.	In-person (see below to book)
19:30 - 21:00	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/ School research sessions:	See below
	Humanities and Social Sciences Race Across Campus	In person Booking required
	Science panel discussions (Getting published and passing your viva)	4W 1.7 and Online
	School of Management: Embracing the fundamentals of management research for a successful academic career	In person (added to diaries)
10:30 - 11:15	Doctoral networking online - meet other PGRs	Online
11:30 - 12:30	Slice of Research: Doctoral Researcher Presentations	Online
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

Keynote speaker: Prof Jason Arday

Join us to see Professor Jason Arday from the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education who will present his talk The Name of the Game: Navigating Academia. In this talk, Professor Arday will consider how postgraduate students need to navigate academia in light of the intersectional challenges we currently face.

Join us in-person for the talk

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.

Purchase a ticket

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 which includes a local bakery owner, will select their favourite creation. In addition, a people's choice winner will be decided by the audience.

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

Workshops and Alumni panels

On 17th June, the following workshops on entrepreneurship, impact and public engagement will take place. Book below:

On 18th June, come along to our Life after the doctorate parallel alumni panels, with a panel for each discipline. Speakers include:

Edward Elias, PhD Mechanical Engineering 2011 - Entrepreneur/academic career
Jon Chouler, PhD Chemical Engineering 2018 - Industry
Niamh Ni Shuilleabhain, PhD Health 2020 - Government/Policy
Peter King, PhD Economics, 2021 - Postdoc
Bhagyashree Patil, PhD Computer Science/Psychology 2018, Academic career
Andrew Rushworth, PhD Chemistry 2016, Industry

Check out the full programme

Slice of Research presentations (online and in person)

Our doctoral researchers will talk about their research projects at parallel Slice of Research sessions where researchers talk about their work in 10 minutes, followed by a short Q&A session. Book your place below.

Book your place

Date	Time	Session Title	Hybrid/online only	Book
17 Jun	11:30 - 12:45	Advances in Health Research	Hybrid	In person / Online
17 Jun	11:30 - 12:45	Dual Themes: Ethics, Human Values and Technological Influences / Education, Language and cultural practices	Hybrid	In person / Online
17 Jun	11:30 - 12:45	Sustainability, innovation and future-focused solutions	Hybrid	In person / Online
18 Jun	11:30 - 12:30	Education, Language and Cultural practices	Online	Book
18 Jun	11:30 - 12:30	Psychosocial Development and Social Engagement	Online	Book

Contact us

If you have any questions about the Doctoral Festival of Ideas 2025, contact the Doctoral Development Team.