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The Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) community came together this week to celebrate academia and knowledge exchange at the Research and Enterprise Conference 2024. 

120 attendees gathered in the University’s Atrium for a day filled with keynote speakers and workshops demonstrating the breadth of research currently taking place at BNU. Sessions spanned technology, creative industries and life and social sciences.

Opened by Professor Nick Braisby, Vice-Chancellor at BNU, the conference focussed on the positive impact that research can have on society.

In his address to researchers and academics at BNU, Professor Braisby said: “We all have a role to play in communicating the value and impact of our research. Never underplay the power of what you do.”

The day’s keynote speakers were BNU’s own Professor Arinola Adefila, with the lecture ‘Tools of legibility: research as a social process’, and Professor Jonathan Houdmont, from the University of Nottingham, with his session entitled ‘Can scientific research help eradicate work-related stress?’

In her presentation, Professor Adefila, talked about the ways we learn and share wisdom, and how research doesn’t always have to be formal studies and papers. Sharing an analogy of the sacred baobab tree, Professor Adefila told how her own knowledge of myths and legends from growing up in Nigeria have supported her understanding of conservation and climate research. 

Professor Adefila said: “Research alone rarely changes anything – knowledge exchange is how we can make real impact in our societies. One thing BNU is very good at is keeping at the forefront of society and our industries and sharing our knowledge.” 

The day was supplemented with 23 workshops, panel discussions and presentations from BNU academics and external guests, and culminated in the award presentation for research postcard and poster competitions, voted on by attendees throughout the day.

The winner of the postcard competition was Gurpreet Singh, Postgraduate Research Student at BNU, whose research is entitled ‘Sustainability Intelligence (SI): Guiding Decisions and Policies for a Transformative Design of the Denim Industrial System’. 

Runners up were Messua Poulin-Wolff and Jon Place with ‘A New Model for Creative Collaboration as Practice Based Research’ and Mohammed Omar with research entitled ‘Diversity Matters: Underrepresentation of Black and Minority Ethnic Officers within specialised police units in the United Kingdom.’

Winners of the research poster competition were Jon Jackson and Melanie Carter with their poster centred on the research ‘Empowering Supporters of Vulnerable Households Experiencing Sudden Bereavement Through the Potential Applications of Digital Technology and AI.’

Runners up were Alexandra Constantinescu with research entitled ‘The Women Eat Last Traditions, Table Manners, and Gender Narratives at the Romanian Dining Table’ and Nic McAllister, Taryn Tavener-Smith and Jon Jackson, with their project ‘mLearning with MediLingo: Decoding medical terminology like a language for Nursing students.’

Professor Florin Ioras, Director of Research and Enterprise at BNU, said: “At BNU we value our researchers and their research, and this conference is a testament to BNU’s growing research culture.”

Find out more about Research and Knowledge Exchange at BNU.