Celebrating the Visualising Research Competition 2025
At the close of our three-day staff conference, colleagues gathered in The Gallery for one of the highlights of the week - the Visualising Research Competition winners’ announcement. It was fantastic to see such a strong turnout, with staff from across professional services, teaching, and research joining together. (And yes, the cake helped too, but we like to think it wasn’t just the cake!)
The competition is a joint effort, with Karen Heald overseeing the artistic side and Hayley Dennis from the Research Office steering the organisation. Karen spoke about how powerful this initiative can be: it encourages researchers to step outside the usual ways of presenting their work and to distil complex ideas into a single striking image. This not only sparks creativity but also helps researchers to communicate their work in fresh, accessible ways building confidence, inspiring collaboration, and showcasing the university’s research in a way that connects with wider audiences.
This year’s Judges’ Prize went to Sara Hilton, whose image “Football for Change: Global Connections, Local Impact” won them the top prize of £250 and, of course, everlasting glory.
Runners-up in the judges’ vote were PhD researcher Karolina Skorek with “Screenshot you Soul” and Dr Grace Thomas with “What Does Inclusion Look Like?”.
The People’s Choice Vote, decided by the public, crowned Karolina Skorek as this year’s champion. We also gave a special commendation to Cara Langford Watts, whose entry scored highly and impressed many voters (“Neutralising Compassion”).
This year, the People’s Choice winning design made its way onto limited-edition mugs, which disappeared quickly as attendees snapped them up. Keep an eye out around the university for people sipping coffee from the winning image mug.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part, supported colleagues, and helped make the event such a vibrant, collegiate success. We can’t wait to see your entries for next year!
