Research Communication Competition
Posters in Parliament supports development for student researchers to learn how to communicate their research, not only people in their subject specialism but to people who are interested but not from their research area. Presenters were asked to consider how they would communicate their research to a lay-audience and especially MPs, Peers and policy makers and in 2026 the Research Communication Competition was introduced to reward presenters who had best considered how to communicate their work.
During the poster exhibition the judges spoke with all shortlisted candidates, before the winner and commended presentations were announced by Chair of the judging panel and of BCUR, Professor Paul Taylor. Prior to this all competition entries had been reviewed and shortlisted by a group of BCUR institutions, these were: Queen Mary University London; University of Essex; University of Glasgow, University of Leeds; University of Sheffield; and the University of Sussex.
Posters in Parliament 2026 Winner and Commended Presenters
Winner
Jodie Edwards, University of Sheffield
Foraging in Thurnscoe - what barriers exist and how can we remove them?
Commended
Rindhiya Vishu Shankar, Queen Mary University London
Designing Microfluidic Devices for Drug Diffusion Testing
Commended
Yik Nok Bryan Lee, University of Lancashire
Beyond the Bust: A New Narrative for Better Inclusive Design
The Judges
The Research Communication Competition judges were led by Professor Paul Taylor, with Dave Toulson, Dr Hollie Chandler and Professor Stuart Hampton-Reeves.
Professor Paul Taylor
Paul is the current Chair of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR) and Professor of Chemical Education at the University of Leeds.
At Leeds he has acted as Director of Student Education for Chemistry (2015-17), Pro-Dean for Student Education for the Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (2017-2021) and Dean for Student Education at university level (2021-23). Paul is currently Head of the Pedagogy & Scholarship of Chemistry Section, Programme Manager for Natural Sciences, Faculty lead for Partnership with students and a university Belonging Academic Lead. Paul is a National Teaching Fellow (2020).
Dave Toulson
Dave is a Senior Caseworker for John Slinger MP and has worked for a number of MPs since 2017 and has covered a variety of roles and responsibilities including research and working with key stakeholders.
Dave is also a Labour Councillor on Coventry City where he is deputy Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care.
Dave previously studied and between 2013 - 2020 taught in the Department of History at the University of Warwick teaching first-year core modules 'Making of the Modern World' and 'Making History/The Historian’s Toolkit'.
Dr Hollie Chandler
Hollie is Director of Policy at the Russell Group, which represents 24 research-intensive universities across the UK.
Hollie leads the Russell Group’s policy team, working across international, R&D and higher education policy issues. Hollie previously managed research and charity policy at Cancer Research UK and was a fellow in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Hollie completed her PhD in molecular oncology at UCL following her natural sciences undergraduate at the University of Cambridge.
Professor Stuart Hampton-Reeves
Stuart has a reputation for his work pioneering various undergraduate research projects. He is one of the founders of the British Conference on Undergraduate Research and Posters in Parliament. He regularly speaks at conferences around the world about the importance of undergraduate research and has been an international advisor to the Australasian Conference on Undergraduate Research. Stuart's research focus is the study of Shakespeare in performance, specifically contemporary British performance. He has also written about Shakespeare’s plays in context and performance histories of plays such as the Henry VI trilogy, Othello and Measure for Measure. Stuart is also an acknowledged expert on undergraduate research. He has visited the UK Parliament and the White House, and he has spoken about his work all over the world. His most recent publication is a monograph, 'Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Hall', published by Bloomsbury in 2019.