Plans are currently underway for the 2018 RIBA Research Matters conference, with this year’s event to run over two days in Sheffield, co-hosted by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University.
As you may already be aware, the Research Matters conference has been developed to provide early career stage researchers an opportunity to present their work in a format similar to that of a peer-refereed conference, but without the usual preparatory processes of submission, selection, and rewriting. Research Matters aims to support PhD students and early career researchers in the development of their work. The event adopts the rigour of an academic conference but with papers to be presented in a constructive, supportive and non-confrontational atmosphere.
This year, we have decided to include shorter, PechaKucha-style sessions in the programme to encourage those with less developed research work to present. We intend to open these sessions up to local practices and more established researchers to present their work. We see this as a good opportunity to facilitate potential collaborations between practice and academia, and to support the development of relationships with the practice research community.
We kindly ask you to promote this event to your post-graduate students and staff, as well as to any practices who you think may be interested. Please encourage submissions for both the paper and the pecha kucha presentation slots.
At this stage, applicants for the paper presentation will need to submit:
- their contact details
- a paper title
- an abstract of no more than 500 words, covering:
- what the research is seeking to find
- why the research is being conducted
- what the current stage of work is
- what the research methods being employed are
- any findings to date
For the PechaKucha slots, simply a name and a theme will suffice for now. Booking and venue information will follow shortly and attendance at the event is free.
Please email your submissions or any queries to research@riba.org by 31st July, 2018.
Featured image Sheffield Hallam Students Union, credit Ken Kay / RIBA Collections via RIBA