Competition winners
Three Minute Thesis (3MT)
3MT Winner:
Hanna Nsugbe, HSS, 'Could YOU get away with murder? Diplomatic immunity as a get out of jail free card’
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3MT Joint Runner-up:
Ife Olumekun, CBE, 'Bio-inspiring techniques for resilient infrastructures'.
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Bex Walker, SPS, 'Children should be heard on research that concerns them: Investigating the causes of falls WITH children who have cerebral palsy'.
3MT People’s Choice Award:
Waed Aksheikh, PBS, 'Investigation of the cancer chemopreventive potential of plants from Syria'.
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Posters
Early-stage PGR Poster Winner:
Alexia Hesten, BES, 'Understanding disease risk in the UK pet trade of reptiles and amphibians'
Early-Stage PGR Poster Runner-up:
Joanna Wootton, SPS, 'Investigating current staircase interventions and translating research into a naturalistic environment'
Early-Stage PGR Poster People’s Choice:
Andrea Sante, ARI, 'Galactic archaeology with artificial neural networks'
Later-Stage PGR Poster Winner:
Zoe Bell, SPS, 'Factors affecting the adoption of contact centre health initiatives'
Later-stage PGR Poster Runner-up:
Katie Hoad, SPS, 'Stroke-heart syndrome after intracerebral haemorrhage'
Later-stage PGR Poster People’s Choice:
Molly McCarthy, PSY, 'Improve coding practices for patients in suicidal crisis'
Programme
The PGR Festival is taking place at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. Some elements will also be available to follow remotely via Teams. A joining link will be sent to those who register for online attendance.
9:15-9:45
Registration
9:45-10:00
Welcome
10:00-11:00
EDIR: Institutionally and Beyond. A discussion session chaired by PGRs, with contributions from the Associate Deans for Diversity and Inclusion (ADDIs)
11:00-11:30
Break
11:30-12:30
Poster Session
A chance to speak to PGRs about their research and cast your vote for a 'People's Choice' poster winner. Over 60 posters on display from all faculties and all stages of research.
12:30-1:20
Lunch
1:20-2:10
Parallel Sessions
Session 1: International postgraduate researcher experience. With Mo Abbasi (Civil Engineering & Built Environment), Hui Liu (Business), Reda Madroumi (Psychology).
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Session 2: Global Scholarship. Q&A session with academic staff on international research, collaborations and networks. With Dr Emma Roberts (School of Art), Dr Áine MacDermott (Computer Science & Maths and Dr Tim Lane (Biological & Environmental Sciences).
2:15-3:30
Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition Final
Fast-paced research communication competition, challenging PGRs to present on their research and its significance in just 180 seconds. Audience members can vote for a 'People's Choice' winner.
3:30-4:00
Break
4:00-4:45
Keynote Speaker: Dr Catherine Baker, ‘International Research Networking through Eurovision’
5:00-6:30
Closing words
Prof Keith George, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research & Knowledge Exchange
Prizes and drinks reception
Venue
The conference is taking place on the 4th floor of the Maritime Museum, on the Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AQ.
There is more information about access and facilities on the museum website.
There is also information about travelling to the venue here.
Eurovision
Liverpool is hosting Eurovision 2023, and the song contest is taking over the city from 1-15 May. The city centre is expected to be very busy on Thursday 11 May, but the event should lend a unique flavour to this year’s PGR Festival. There are lots of sights and events celebrating Eurovision, one of which, The Floating Earth, is visible from the Maritime Museum!
For more information about Eurovision artworks and events happening in Liverpool, see the Visit Liverpool website.
Highlights that are close to the PGR Festival venue include:
The Floating Earth, a 10-metre artwork by artist Luke Jerram, using NASA imagery of the earth's surface, installed in the dock during Eurovision.
The Soloveiko Songbird trail (“Nightingale” in English) shares stories and songs of Ukraine, and a couple of the illuminated installations are close to the Maritime Museum.
Postgraduate Research Posters
All research posters will be available online, and printed versions will be on display throughout the festival. Judging will take place online before the event by members of the LJMU research community, but all festival delegates are invited to vote for a ‘People’s Choice’ winner on the day.
PGR poster presenters will have the opportunity to talk to others about their research during a poster session at the event.
There are two poster categories:
- Early-stage postgraduate researchers (pre-Confirmation of Registration)
- Mid- and later-stage postgraduate researchers (post-Confirmation, or Prof Docs in the research phase of their programme)
The Judges’ Choice first prize for each category is £250, People’s Choice award is £150.
Winners will be announced on Thursday 11 May, at the end of the Postgraduate Research Festival.
Three Minute Thesis
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a communications competition for doctoral researchers, originating at the University of Queensland. It challenges researchers to tell an intelligent, non-specialist audience what the research is about, why they are doing it, and why anyone should care in just three minutes.
The 2023 LJMU final at the PGR Festival brings together the winning presenters from faculty competitions, which are taken place during April.
A full list of finalists is included below. Some of the presentations are available to watch online here.
1. Ian Eustace (Nursing & Allied Health), Integrated care for people with Stroke.
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2. Alice Cunnington (Biological & Environmental Sciences), Exploring natural samplers for marine environmental DNA monitoring.
3. Olivia Brennan (Law), Questions of Identity: internal self-determination in Wales.
4. Ife Olumekun (Engineering), Bio-inspiring techniques for resilient infrastructures.
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5. Hanna Nsugbe (Humanities & Social Science), Could YOU get away with murder? Diplomatic immunity as a get out of jail free card.
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6. Molly McCarthy (Psychology), Improve coding practices for patients in suicidal crisis.
7. Alex Barnes (Business), Conservation of resources and regulatory mode; the binding passageways.
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8. Osamah Al-Hashimi (Civil Engineering & Built Environment), Remediation of simulated groundwater contaminated with tetracycline antibiotic using wastepaper sludge ash by-product.
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9. Bex Walker (Sport & Exercise Sciences), Children should be heard on research that concerns them: Investigating the causes of falls WITH children who have cerebral palsy.
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10. Mhonishya Krishnamoorthy (Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences), Natural rubber for water conditioning and purification.
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11. Laura Mulligan (Psychology), Gentle touch stimulation in the neonatal Intensive care unit.
12. Mollie Bryde-Evens (Business), Seeking the golden mean: a virtue ethical investigation into the interactions between triple bottom line sustainability and disaster recovery in organisations.
13. Ryan Bellfield (Computer Science & Maths), "Running Into Issues”: Development of unsupervised machine learning models with applications in athlete’s heart research.
14. Ruth Slater (Business), An exploration of workplace experiences of the international workforce in NHS.
15. Waed Alsheikh (Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences), Investigation of the cancer chemopreventive potential of plants from Syria.
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PGR Festival planning team
The 2023 PGR Festival planning is led by three PGR Festival Assistants in collaboration with the Doctoral Academy.
Elysia Greenway
Elysia Greenway is a PhD Candidate at Face Lab, researching craniofacial identification and face perception. Alongside this research, she is Vice-President of RIDE Society (Respect, Inclusivity, Diversity and Respect), the JMSU Student Trustee and is part of the PGR Research Festival planning team.
Molly Hawker
I am Molly Hawker, a third year PhD Researcher from the School of Computer Science and Mathematics. Alongside my research and being part of the PGR Research Festival planning team, I am a PGR Rep for the Faculty of Engineering and Technology.
Gabriela Saengar Silva
Hi! I'm Gabriela Saenger Silva, a final year PhD researcher at the School of Arts and Design at the Exhibition Research Lab. I recently took over the position as PGR rep for the LSA and for APS, close to the start of helping set up the PGR Festival.
Previous PGR Festivals
