5 reasons why you should apply for Research without Borders

Posted on 24 February 201924 February 2019 by Doctoral College

Bec Rengel at the 2018 Research without Borders showcase exhibition

Bec Rengel, the Bristol PGR who picked up the ‘best-communicated exhibit’ prize at the 2018 Research without Borders showcase exhibition, reflects on the festival — and why getting involved was such a positive experience for them.

We’ve all been there. You’re slogging through that research degree (for me it was my MPhil), but it isn’t nearly where you hoped it would be by now. In fact, you’re caught in between being proud of your work, and wanting to bury it in a shallow grave while you flee the country assuming a new identity.

This is how I felt when I applied for Research Without Borders (RwB) in 2018. And here’s 5 reasons why you should too:

1. It helps your research

When designing your stall, you need to think about engaging, creative, and clear ways of conveying your research to members of the public. It prompts you to look at your research in ways that you might not have before, giving you a fresh perspective.

Talking with members of the public, you’re forced to examine every aspect of your arguments, sources, and results. For example, during one in-depth discussion, I ended up having a huge breakthrough and discovering a strong answer to my primary research question. I’m not saying that’ll happen for everyone, but it’s almost inevitable that you’ll come out of RwB with more ideas, clarity, and even new directions for your research.

2. Careers, Careers, Careers

Believe it or not, RwB is a huge event that really packs a punch on your CV. If you’re looking to continue a career in academia, public engagement experience is an absolute must and RwB can help kick-start your career.

If you’re heading outside academia, RwB shows employers that you can manage your own projects, think creatively, and engage audiences. It’s also a fantastic way to improve your communication skills, making interviews that tiny bit less terrifying!

3. Get out of the bubble

Sometimes you can get completely lost in your research, consumed by #gradlife, and forget why you started your degree in the first place! After all, we don’t just do research for ourselves, but to make a contribution to society in our chosen field.

RwB gives you the opportunity to take your research directly to people, finding out what people outside universities think, as well as seeing just how your research can make a real difference in their lives.

4. Get creative

Even if you don’t think you have a creative streak, you’ll be amazed at what you could do! I saw robotics demonstrations, magic, a full pub set-up, screen printing, interactive maps, guessing games. It doesn’t even have to be something particularly elaborate. Sometimes the simplest thing like an artwork display or a prompt for attendees to write their fondest memory of Bristol were enough to draw people in.

5. Networking

RwB doesn’t just showcase your work to the general public. You’ll also be able to meet industry professionals from a huge range of sectors. And don’t despair my fellow Arts and Humanities researchers, RwB isn’t just for science, technology, or business! I met professionals working in heritage, education, civil service, journalism, research, law, you name it! It was fantastic to see what people with degrees like mine went on to accomplish.

You’ll also get the chance to meet amazing fellow PGRs, researching everything from bees to Beauty and the Beast. Research degrees can be pretty isolating — particularly when, like me, you’re working alone with mountains of books every day. RwB is the perfect opportunity to make new friends and leave your self-imposed solitude in the library or lab.

You won’t regret it and you’ll leave with a stronger research project, vital skills, new friends, and great memories. Go ahead and apply!

Want to give it a try yourself? It’s not too late! Just complete the Research without Borders application form before 11am on Thursday 28 February 2019.

Paws for a break — banishing the winter blues with the power of pets

Posted on 23 January 201923 January 2019 by Doctoral College

After the fun and frivolities of the festive break, January can seem… well, a bit of a slog. You’re back to the normal routine, the emails have resumed and once-distant deadlines now appear all too close. What better time, then, to celebrate the stress-relieving power of our animal companions…

Yes, our PGR Pets competition is essentially just an excuse to celebrate the furry (or scaly) friends that help you take a break from your research routine, or even just help you smile when you’re having a particularly frustrating day. The animal in question can be a cat, dog, fish, iguana — even a squirrel that you always see on your walk into the lab/office. If it belongs to somebody else, though, please make sure that you have their permission to share the photo.

To take part in our contest, and be in with a chance of winning a £20 voucher for Pets at Home or 20 Bristol pounds, just share a photograph:

as a comment on one of the Bristol Doctoral College’s #PGRpets Facebook posts
on Twitter or Instagram using the #PGRpets hashtag
by emailing it to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk.

Terms and conditions

The competition is open to all current postgraduate research students at the University of Bristol.
The closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday 8 February 2019.
The winner will receive a £20 Pets at Home voucher or 20 Bristol pounds. (The winner will be able to select their prize from these two options.)
The winner will be selected at random.
Multiple entries are permitted.
If a photograph features a domestic animal that isn’t yours, please ensure you have the owner’s permission to enter.
The Bristol Doctoral College may share images from the competition in a future blogpost and on social media.

Note: although we thought this was an original idea, we must credit the University of Glasgow’s PGR Service, who got there before us. Read their PGR Pets and self-care blogpost.

7 gifts the PGR Hub gave us in 2018

Posted on 20 December 201831 December 2018 by Doctoral College

As the staff of the BDC reflect on the joys and tidings 2018 has given us and our wider PGR community, we can’t help but return to the one gift that has kept on giving: our brand-new PGR Hub space. It’s only been open since October, but it’s already had a huge (and positive) impact on Bristol’s PGRs.

Here are seven of our Hub highlights — and some ideas on how you can make the most of this new space in 2019.

1. Putting PGR personal and professional development front-and-centre

The University’s Personal and Professional Development (PPD) programme for PGRs is now based primarily in one central location, thanks to the establishment of the PGR Hub. Our research students can come along to one consistent space to find out what’s coming up in our schedule of over 100 free workshops, seminars and courses run around researcher development.

Since the Hub opening in October earlier this year, over 45 courses, workshops and groups in total have taken place in one of our dedicated training rooms. Highlights include brand new courses that focus on different stages of a research degree: ‘Getting going’, ‘Maintaining momentum’, and ‘Finishing up and forging ahead’ help you plan and manage your degree according to which stage you find yourself in. ‘Thesis Boot Camp’, a residential writing programme for those writing up, also took place over three days in November. Check out upcoming PPD courses through our online catalogue.

2. Not one – but two! – seasonal Hub Quizzes

The Hub isn’t just about training and development, though. Bringing together PGRs from different parts of the University to meet one another and have fun is a big part of the Hub’s mission. The BDC hosted two ‘Hub quizzes’ themed around Halloween and the winter festive season — opportunities for PGRs to take a break, tackle our trivia-tastic questions… and endure some truly terrible puns

As we enter 2019 and look ahead at our upcoming seasons — Valentine’s Day, the Easter break, maybe even an April Fool’s themed quiz — we’re asking our PGRs to volunteer themselves as host! Get in touch with us if you think you can outpun our punstoppable punchlines so far.

3. WriteFest

November saw researchers and research students alike join in with Academic Writing Month (#AcWriMo). The University joined in for WriteFest, a month dedicated to support around writing for academic purposes. Altogether, our PGRs who took part wrote a total of 349,229 over the course of 30 days — an astounding figure! A big part of how we achieved this was through hosting Thesis Boot Camp, Writers’ Retreats, and Drop-in writing days in the Hub.

Of course, WriteFest wasn’t just about hitting targets – but about developing healthy, professional writing habits. Check out our WriteFest roundup for our most important takeaways and tips. From January, we’ll be hosting regular drop-in writing retreats every Friday in the Hub.

4. Calming Crafternoons

One of our favourite activities going on in the PGR Hub is the ‘calming Crafternoon’ – an afternoon dedicated entirely to mindfulness activities such as knitting, colouring, jigsaw puzzling or sketching. We provide the supplies, and our PGRs supply themselves! Even if you don’t want to take part in a specific activity, there’s free tea and coffee on hand to help you relax and unwind.

Do you have an activity you’d like to bring, a skill you’d like to share, or an idea for supporting mindfulness? Get in touch with us and let’s make it happen!

5. The introduction of our TA Talk series

A huge part of supporting our PGR community is to support doctoral researchers who teach. The Hub is host to the newly established ‘TA Talks’ series, which consists of loosely-themed sessions designed around peer-networking, support resources and development opportunities around the University. The first two talks featured appearances from the Digital Education Office and the Bristol Doctoral College.

The next TA talk takes place on 22 January, and invites early career academics from the Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching (BILT) to discuss how their own teaching experiences influenced their research and career pathways. Sign up via Eventbrite.

6. Sharing PGR experiences in working with industry

PGRs Sam Brooks and Robert Dibble shared their experiences on placements they undertook this summer as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. PGRs interested in learning more about the benefits of placement opportunities were invited to hear them speak and ask questions over free pizza in the Hub. The value of getting established in industry settings are that they open employability doors beyond the world of academia. Placements broaden your skill set, complement your research, and provide experience in a professional setting.

Our next discussion about placements features a special guest from Aardman Animations to share her experiences of working in Creative Industries. Join us in the Hub on 22 January.

7. Welcoming new PhD scholars to Bristol’s PGR community

The Hub provided an ideal location to welcome to Bristol our new cohort of China Scholarship Council – University of Bristol (CSC-UoB) Joint PhD Scholars. Returning students were invited to share their experiences of Bristol both as a city and a research-intensive University, and new students were encouraged to share their hopes and ambitions for the next few years.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Professor Nishan Canagarajah, welcomed the scholars with a heartfelt message about his own experiences as an international postgraduate scholar, and the importance of finding and building relationships and support systems within one’s wider research community.

Since this event, the PGR Hub has been a space dedicated to helping our PGRs build those relationships and establish those support systems for themselves and with one another.

Doing the write thing — highlights from Bristol’s first WriteFest

Posted on 5 December 2018 by Doctoral College

Writing is a universal experience for all research students. Whether you’re researching rats in Argentina or counting conjunctions in Classical texts, at some point your findings will need to be written up into a dissertation. Add to that the need to draft conference papers, journal articles, and grant applications, and a month focusing on writing seemed like a great idea.

This is the first time Bristol has been involved in WriteFest and we therefore initially had quite modest goals: to write 100,000 words over the course of the month. However, with Thesis Boot Camp as part of our WriteFest activities, we soon smashed that figure, writing a whopping 263, 343 words over 2 and a half days! This required us to re-evaluate and institute a #stretchgoal of 500,000 words! The final figures reveal that we actually wrote 349,229 over the course of 30 days, which is an astounding figure!

But it wasn’t all about the numbers. Our focus during WriteFest has been to develop healthy, professional writing habits. We featured three videos, each with three top tips of how to write productively.

Sarah Green, a part-time PGR student in History, offered some great advice about writing regularly, even if you can only squeeze in fifteen minutes a day:

Our PG Researcher Development Officer, Loriel Anderson, emphasised the need to schedule your writing sessions and the importance of taking breaks:

And Mike Gulliver, Research Staff Development Officer with Bristol Clear, spoke about writing in small chunks and working out what time of day you are most productive:

Through social media we shared several tools to help motivate and encourage our researchers to reach their personal writing targets, including highlighting how the Hemingway app can help to craft more precise prose, and how The Most Dangerous Writing App can provide a little extra pressure to keep writing! We even shared how to block out distractions through social-media blocking apps Freedom.to and StayFocusd.

Hopefully the use of these apps didn’t prevent you from taking part in our #writekindofmusic competition, which encouraged our researchers to share their writing playlists. Lisa Morgans, a researcher in Veterinary Sciences, won a £10 Rough Trade voucher for sharing her favourite instrumental and world music, including Songhoy Blues.

It is no coincidence that Self Care Week fell in the middle of WriteFest. A focus on word counts and competitions can make some people feel as though the only way to write well is to write all the time. However, we tried to stress the importance of taking care of oneself and the value of a well-earned break. We featured tips from the PGR community of how we can take care of ourselves, from practising yoga to finding a bit of peace and quiet each day. Simple, healthy habits to implement every day. Throughout November there were also opportunities for our researchers to meet some of the new Student Wellbeing Advisers, and to attend sessions with Bristol Wellbeing Therapies. We also hosted relaxation afternoons in the Hub, featuring free tea, coffee and board games. Finally, we explored the value of ‘making and connecting’ in our #crafternoon.

Throughout WriteFest we’ve learned the power of writing together – either physically, in our Writers’ Retreats and drop-in writing days, or virtually, by sharing our writing goals and holding one another accountable for our achievements. There’s something quite profound about knowing that by writing alongside others you can achieve more than you ever could working alone.

From stitching to stretching — your PGR self-care tips

Posted on 30 November 201820 November 2020 by Doctoral College

We marked this year’s Self Care Week (12–18 November) by asking Bristol’s postgraduate researchers: how do you look after yourself?

The tips we received were varied — from baths to boundaries — but there was a strong emphasis on taking a definite step away from your research degree to do something different. And, when you’re in need of some peace, knitting seems to be a go-to pastime.

So, without further ado, here’s what helps you unwind, de-stress and forget about your research.

Nicola

‘My #selfcareweek tip for PGRs is to do positive affirmations. ‘I am doing well’, ‘I am worthy of this opportunity’, ‘I am making a valuable contribution’, etc. It’s amazing how they can people to rewire their anxious minds. Check out Louise Hay’s work on this if you want to know more.’

Niels

‘I like to make myself aware of the different ways creativity works.

‘Sometimes when you’re stuck at solving a problem or writing, just do something completely different. Your brain will continue to subconsciously work on the problem (and much more effectively than your conscious mind can), while you can do exercise, nap or eat. Consciously taking time out doesn’t mean you’re being lazy. In fact you’re being more productive, but also taking care of your own wellbeing.’

Suzanne

‘Knitting and Lego.’

Mary

‘Forcing myself to only work the 1 hour I am paid for preparing a seminar, or the 20 minutes I am paid for marking a paper, even if doing a good job means working triple that and working extra for free.

‘Also knitting.’

Pam

‘If your life is busy and full of thoughts and people, find a way to be quiet and alone once a day. I’m no good at doing nothing so meditation doesn’t suit me. Instead I like a hot bath (doesn’t need to be long), a little yoga or a walk in the fresh air.’

Jane

‘I go to yoga class.’

Demi

‘As research can be hectic at times, I try to involve myself in exercise classes throughout the week, taking a break away from my desk whilst meeting new people!’

Update, November 2020

Fancy entering this year’s Self-Care Week competition — and maybe winning a £50 Rough Trade voucher? Read our latest blogpost.

How to Break Your Writer’s Block

Posted on 10 November 2018 by Doctoral College

… or Getting Ideas Out of Your Head And Onto The Page

This post by Bristol PGR Pam Lock, who’s been running Writers’ Retreats at Bristol since 2014, was originally shared on the Bristol Clear Blog.

Some days writing is hard. Whether you have writer’s block or just can’t translate your ideas into writing, here are some practical ways to get your ideas out of your head and onto the page.

Free Writing

What is Free Writing? Free Writing is a brain dump, a way to write down your thoughts and ideas without constricting them by constantly editing yourself. It can be particularly useful for people who are afraid to ‘dirty the page’ with words that aren’t quite perfect or who lose track of ideas because they are constantly editing as they write.

Free writing is not about creating beautiful prose. That is the next stage, or even the stage after that. As Terry Pratchett once said, ‘The first draft is just you telling yourself the story’. Once you understand what story you want to tell, you can shape and translate it for others to read and understand. Free writing gives you a different way to access and explore your ideas.

How do I do it? For five minutes, write non-stop: don’t lift your fingers from the keyboard or your pen from the page. Just keep writing. Don’t stop to ponder or make corrections or look up a word’s meaning in the dictionary. Just keep writing.

If you find yourself stuck for something to say, write, ‘I don’t know what to write next’ or repeat the last word you wrote again and again until a fresh thought emerges. It won’t take long.
Be strict, finish your sentence at 5 minutes and stop writing.

When can I use free writing? There are lots of uses for free writing. I recommend it:

As a warm up. If you want to get started at the beginning of a writing day, five minutes of creative free writing is a great way to get yourself into the groove before you start tackling your academic writing. It can also open up creative pathways in your brain allowing you to write more smoothly. Write on anything: the view from your window, your journey to work, a painting or photo.
As a method to move forward when you are stuck. We all get stuck. Sometimes we just can’t quite work out what we think about something. Sometimes a walk around the block can be good to clear your head. Or five minutes of free writing to help you access deeper thoughts or accept ideas you may have been blocking for some reason.
As a way to develop or close an idea. It is easy to get into an inescapable circular pattern of writing. You get obsessed with one idea and end up writing it in slightly different phrasing again, and again, and again until you have thousands of words repeating one thing. Sometimes you just need to close the idea. Free writing can be a great way to do this so that you can move onto the next thing.

Want to know more? For more information about free writing, take a look at:

Peter Elbow, ‘Freewriting Exercises’, Writing without Teachers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 3-11.

Richard Nordquist, ‘What Is Freewriting? How Writing Without Rules Can Help You Overcome Writer’s Block’

Six-word summaries

If you find free writing too unstructured, you could try creating a six-word summary of your article or chapter, or even of a single paragraph that isn’t working.

Take a few minutes to think about what the piece you want to summarise is about.
You may find it useful to write down a few key words to get you started.
Spend five minutes sculpting a six-word summary of the piece
Not only can this help you work out the essence of your writing piece, the summary you produce can be helpful in the editing process too.
- Ask yourself: Does every paragraph or sentence help me to communicate the essential ideas of this piece to my reader?
- Use it to ensure you don’t include anything redundant or miss anything essential from your writing.

Talk to someone else

For some people, writing can be a lonely process. I advocate finding someone you like to write with and meeting up with them regularly for company and motivation. Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary.

Writing buddies can take many forms. Finding someone you trust to be quiet and productive during your writing time but who will be good distracting company during those very important breaks is a great way to improve your writing.

They can also help you break through writer’s block. Talk for 5 minutes at the beginning of a writing day about what you want to each. Challenge each other. Can you help improve or clarify each other’s writing projects? If you are stuck on something, talk it through with your writing buddy. Even if they are not familiar with your subject, they may just ask the right question to make you look at your ideas in a new way.

Want to get involved in WriteFest 2018, the celebration of academic writing held during November? Find out how the Bristol Doctoral College is marking the month in our round-up blogpost.

Tips, tea and time outs — it’s time for Self Care Week 2018

Posted on 8 November 2018 by Doctoral College

Self Care Week 2018 begins on Monday 12 November, and it’s an opportunity for all of us to take stock and think about our day-to-day wellbeing.

To mark the occasion, the PGR Hub will be hosting free events that provide an opportunity to talk about self-care — and just take a break.

Meet your Student Wellbeing Advisers
Wednesday 14 November, 2.30–4.30pm
An opportunity to meet your faculty’s Student Wellbeing Advisers and learn what they can do for you. This 90-minute session will also include practical tips for looking after yourself. Book now on Eventbrite.

Relaxation Afternoon
Friday 16 November, 12–5pm
As it says on the (biscuit) tin, this is an opportunity to take a break, enjoy some free tea and biscuits, and relax in the PGR Hub. No booking required!

In addition, although it won’t be held during Self Care Week, bookings are also now open for the Bristol Wellbeing Therapies information session on 26 November — a chance to get tips on managing stress and anxiety, and to find how you can get support from the NHS. To attend this special session, sign up for a free place on Eventbrite.

Competition

We’ll also be marking the occasion by asking for your self-care tips — and collating them for a BDC blogpost.

Whether it’s a technique that helps you to relax or a little routine that gives you a break from your research, you can share your nuggets of wellbeing wisdom using one of the channels listed below. We’ll pick a tip at random at 5pm on Monday 19 November, and its author will win 10 Bristol Pounds.

You can submit your tip:

as a comment on one of the Bristol Doctoral College’s #selfcareweek Facebook posts
as a tweet with the #selfcareweek and #BristolPGRs hashtags
as an Instagram post with the #selfcareweek and #BristolPGRs hashtag
in an email to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk.

Terms and conditions

The competition is open to all current postgraduate research students at the University of Bristol.
The closing date for entries is 5pm on Monday 19 November 2018.
The winner will receive 10 Bristol pounds.
The winner will be selected at random.
Multiple entries are permitted.

Welcome new researchers — by sharing what you love about Bristol

Posted on 10 October 201810 October 2018 by Doctoral College

It’s a huge celebration for new postgraduate researchers — and, this year, we’re asking all our PGRs to mark the occasion by sending us a snap of something they love about the city, the University or their research.

At our Researcher Inauguration, which takes place on 18 October in the Great Hall of the Wills Memorial Building, we’ll be welcoming hundreds of new PGRs to the University with speeches, fun activities, refreshments and, of course, free scarves. (If you started your research degree after the November 2017 inauguration, be sure to book your free ticket on Eventbrite.)

We already have a selection of stock snaps for the Great Hall’s big screen (which may or may not feature balloons and bridges), but we thought it’d be much more meaningful to share some of your photos — especially images that encapsulate what you’ve enjoyed about your time so far.

To take part, just share a snap in one of the following ways:

as a comment on one of the Bristol Doctoral College’s #WelcomePGRs Facebook posts
as a tweet with the #WelcomePGRs hashtag
as an Instagram post with the #WelcomePGRs hashtag
in an email to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk.

We’ll pick our four favourite entries at 5pm on Wednesday 17 October. The winners will be displayed on the Main Hall’s giant screen during the Researcher Inauguration and exhibited in the new PGR Hub from the week beginning 22 October.

Good luck — and happy snapping!

Terms and conditions

The competition is open to all current postgraduate research students at the University of Bristol.
The closing date for entries is 5pm on Wednesday 17 October 2018.
Each winner will receive a £10 Watershed voucher. Four prizes will be awarded.
Entries will be judged by members of the Bristol Doctoral College team.
Entrants can submit more than one photo.
Winners consent to their winning photos being displayed during the Bristol Doctoral College’s Researcher Inauguration event on 18 October 2018 and in the PGR Hub in Senate House.
Photos will not be used for commercial purposes.

Ada Lovelace Day: one day isn’t enough

Posted on 9 October 201813 October 2020 by Doctoral College

For Ada Lovelace Day, Angela Suriyakumaran — a PhD student in the School of Chemistry and a STEM Ambassador — shares a personal reflection.

Someone recently asked me if I had a role model in science that I aspired to as a kid. A lot of you would expect me to name a famous scientist we all learn about in school, but my answer was no. There is one simple reason to that: no one I read or heard about was like me.

Let me add some context: I am a scientist, who happens to be of the South Asian origin, gay, first in my family to attain a degree and a woman. As a kid, I knew I was different but it took me years to realise why, and how that may create some obstacles for me in life. I was different from my family, who only knew manual labour as a way of life and just wanted to survive. I was different from the nine-year-olds in my first UK school, who didn’t understand the sorrow of leaving behind your best friends (human and dog) in a country over 5000 miles away. I was different from the boys who were expected to excel in the sciences and the girls in the arts, because I was okay at sewing but better at multiplying. All of these differences are part of my identity, but they are also the reasons why I could not and often still cannot find role models to connect to within Science.

Being a woman in STEM is a privilege I treasure, but it also comes with the burden of knowing that there are kids still out there who feel just as different as me. Some of these kids will overcome those barriers to reach heights they never even dreamed of, and for some, it will fade into the background as just a dream. So why does all of this matter?

I believe there is real worth in taking the time to go out to schools, and reach out to kids, especially young girls, to teach, inspire and show them that there are people just like them living their dream. Even if we inspire just one self-doubting young girl to keep chasing her aspirations, we have made a difference. And who knows? She may be the next Ada Lovelace, Katherine Johnson or Youyou Tu, but most importantly, we have given her the tools to be the best version of herself.

One day a year is not enough time to show a world full of kids that they are not alone in breaking down barriers through their very existence, but it’s a start.

Your #PGRtrek pictures — a globetrotting gallery

Posted on 8 September 201817 September 2018 by Doctoral College

Whether it’s a quick trip to Trondheim or several weeks in Sri Lanka, many PGRs use the summer months to travel beyond Bristol for conferences, symposia and fieldwork. What better way to capture the diverse range of locations visited by these roving researchers than to round them up in a globetrotting gallery? (OK, so we could’ve made a map instead — but we thought this would be more visually appealing.)

Yes, the #PGRtrek competition returned for another year — and this year’s selection of shots didn’t disappoint, with photos featuring everything from frozen fjords to sun-kissed sands. A selection of our favourite snaps are below. Which one do you like the most? Tell us in a comment.

Celebrating the Olden times

Claire Williams submitted this image of a serene green lake, taken during her visit to Olden in Norway.

Trondheim travels

This year’s Inascon conference, held at NTNU Trondheim, gave some of our PGRs a chance take in the spectacular Geiranger Fjord in Norway — as captured in this photo by Victoria Hamilton.

Rwandan roamings

This shot of a school in Gitarama, Rwanda, was submitted by Leanne Cameron, a researcher in the School of Education.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Leanne (@leanneagain) on Aug 3, 2018 at 1:05am PDT

Canadian crustaceans

This downtown crab was captured by Anouk Tleps whilst on a break from a conference in Vancouver, Canada. Although this wasn’t the farthest-flung location, Anouk was the winner of this year’s random draw.

Jassi’s epic journey

Although not a winner in this year’s competition, University of Bristol Law School PGR Jassi Sandhar deserves an honourable mention for submitting a stunning selection of images from her recent fieldwork in Rwanda, Uganda and Sri Lanka — featuring Buddhist statues, waterfalls and a particularly bovine beach. And how many people can say they’ve been photobombed by an elephant?

The trees of Telok Blangah

Second-year PhD student Ashley Tyrer travelled to Singapore in June to attend OHBM 2018 — and, whilst there, took this striking image of Telok Blangah Hill Park. By our calculations, this lush foliage is over 11,000km from Bristol, making Ashley this year’s runner-up.

A quick hop to Honolulu

It was a close-run contest, but her trip to Honolulu, Hawaii for a conference — a journey of over 11,800km — meant Angie McFox was crowned this year’s #PGRtrek winner. Congratulations, Angie!

Thank you to everyone who took part! Whether or not you were a winner, we really enjoyed seeing your images and reflecting on how far PGR life can take you.

[This blogpost was updated on 10 September 2018 to include Angie McFox’s photo and to make it clear that this was the winning entry.]