We are looking for Newcastle University students to represent us at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research 2024. To recognise the great contribution that this could make to a CV and employability, there is sponsorship for up to 12 students to represent Newcastle at BCUR events. You can apply for a scholarship to cover the costs of attending the conference, and you can find out more below.

If you are an undergraduate with a piece of undergraduate research that you’re proud of—or you’re a lecturer with students like that—please read on!

Postgraduate students are also welcome to apply as long as the research was completed while they were an undergraduate and they graduated in the last 12 months.

If you have any further queries, please get in touch with thebcur@newcastle.ac.uk. 

Application process for 2024 BCUR Scholarship Competition 

• You should submit a 250-word abstract by 11:59pm on Monday 20 November 2023 using the application form below. Applicants to BCUR24 can do a ten-minute talk or a poster and you must state which you intend to do in your application.
• Abstracts will then be a judged by a panel of academics, and applicants will receive decisions by Tuesday 5 December 2023.
• If you are unsuccessful in securing a scholarship, you can still apply to attend BCUR24 although you will have to pay for it yourself. To do this you must submit your abstract to BCUR24 directly by 12 noon GMT on Wednesday 20 December 2023.
• Successful applicants who are attending BCUR24 on a Newcastle University BCUR scholarship will be advised to submit their abstracts by 12 noon GMT on Wednesday 20 December 2023 to LSE for review by a BCUR panel. We expect that an abstract that has won the competition at Newcastle will also be judged positively by the BCUR panel, and therefore expect that person will be invited to the conference, though strictly speaking we can’t make any promises.
• The BCUR panel at LSE will then let you know their decision. When you have heard from them, please email thebcur@newcastle.ac.uk to let us know what they said!
• Appropriate logistical and financial arrangements will then be made for the successful applicants.
• Please note: your location will be taken into consideration before making arrangements as we are aware that not all students will stay in Newcastle over the Easter break. We would pay for a return ticket to London either from Newcastle or from wherever you are going to be before and after BCUR 2024, but it must be a return ticket (from and to the same place), and the scholarship includes travel costs only within the UK.

What is included in the scholarship?

• Organised and funded trip to the London School of Economics for BCUR24. (Includes standard-class student-railcard return from Newcastle or home to conference location, taxis from station to conference location, and return, conference fee including board and lodging, and the BCUR dinner.)
• If you choose to present a poster, production of that poster.
• If you have presented a poster, the poster or proof to be framed and displayed in the University (often the student’s School).

Guidance on abstracts

Abstracts should be a short summary of the project that enables reviewers to quickly understand the purpose and content of your research. The following must be included:

• What the research is about (‘What?’)
• Why it is necessary (e.g. literature gap, context for the study, etc.) (‘Why?’)
• How the research has been conducted (e.g. research methods) (‘How?’)
• Findings
• Why this is important, especially for someone not in the field (‘So what?’)
• What might be the implications of this research, for future research or for the public? (‘Now what?’)