Images of Research

We are delighted to announce the return of the Images of Research competition for 2024, as part of the celebrations with the Festival of Research and marking our bicentenary. 

Images of Research is a competition that allows doctoral students and research staff to showcase their research with one image taken by themself and a 150-word description of their research explaining why it is important. This is a great way to show your research from a creative angle. 

To participate, complete this online entry form and submit your image by email to [email protected] by 5pm on Thursday 14 November. 

Shortlisted entries will be available to view on campus.

Winners will be chosen by a specialist panel of judges, and announced during the closing ceremony of the Festival of Research, on Friday 6 December, 11:00am-1:30pm, in the Business School room G.34. 

We have fantastic prizes up for grabs - a £100 voucher each for three winners. 

Eligibility

The competition is open to:

• Doctoral students enrolled at Manchester Met  
• Any member of research staff or teaching and research staff employed at Manchester Met  

How are entries assessed?

Judges’ Choice

There will be two panels responsible for choosing the Judges’ Choice winners. 

There will be a shortlisting and a judging panel, both made up of Academic and Professional Services colleagues from a range of disciplines and expertise. Both the Judges’ Choices and initial shortlisting will be assessed against the following criteria: 

• To what extent does the image engage the viewer and make them want to know more about the research? (third of total score) 
• To what extent does the abstract communicate the story behind the image, to a non-specialist audience? (third of total score) 
• To what extent does the submission as a whole (image and abstract) communicate the beneficial impact of the research on society, culture, the environment or the economy? (third of total score) 

People’s Choice

Visitors to the roadshow can vote for their favourite entry. The entry with the most total votes will be awarded the People’s Choice prize. 

The shortlisting and judging panels

The 2024 Images of Research shortlisting and judging panel will be announced shortly. 

Prizes

Shortlisted entries will be displayed on campus as part of the celebrations with the Festival of Research, marking our bicentenary (location to be confirmed). University staff and students are able to vote for their favourite entry. 

The prizes will be: 

• Judges’ Choice (doctoral student): £100 gift voucher (Amazon, Etsy or book token)
• Judges’ Choice (researcher staff): £100 gift voucher (Amazon, Etsy or book token)
• People’s Choice: £100 gift voucher (Amazon, Etsy or book token)

Entry guidance

Image 

• Your image should engage the viewer and make them want to know more about your research and its impact. 
• Your image must be a photograph, either portrait or landscape, and can be black and white or colour. It must not include watermarks, borders or signatures. 
• Your entry must be submitted as a high-resolution digital image. This can be a digital copy of a photograph taken with film. We would discourage screenshots as the quality of the images does not tend to be high enough quality for printing.   
• Your entry must be formatted as a JPG at least 300 dpi with a minimum of 3508 x 4967 pixels. 
• Your image must be a faithful representation of what was captured at the time of the shot being taken. Large-scale digital adjustments are not acceptable. 
• You must have written permission from any identifiable persons (or their legal guardians) contained within the image. Find out more in the Terms and Conditions section. 

Title and abstract

• You must submit a short title (maximum 10 words) and abstract (maximum 150 words) alongside your image. We will not accept images without a title and abstract. 
• Your abstract should communicate the impact of your research. 
• Your abstract should be written in a language suitable for a non-specialist audience (i.e. written in plain English without using jargon). 

Profile picture 

• If your image is shortlisted, we would like to include your profile picture as part of our virtual gallery and exhibition, for use on social media and on any promotional materials.
• If you are happy for us to use your profile picture, please send in a good-quality head and shoulders photo with your entry.

Enter now