Innovation and Community: Research for a Sustainable Future
The Great Hall, Holloway Campus
9-10 July 2025
Our 6th Student and Staff Research Conference took place across two vibrant days, showcasing the diverse and innovative research culture of our university community. This year’s theme highlighted community interaction, sustainability, and innovation in a variety of powerful and thought-provoking contexts.
The conference opened with a keynote by Dr Torange Lang, Reader in Art, Architecture and Design Activism, on teaching and learning as a research project. This was followed by a Vice Chancellor's PhD Scholars panel on unexpected encounters leading to a positive turn in their research projects. The morning concluded with an exploration of the PhD research journey of a colleague who now supports others as a supervisor.
It is a regular feature of the annual conference that students at the start of their research have the opportunity to give a taste of their projects in 3-minute lightning presentations, complemented by a poster exhibition. This year's lightning presentations in particular demonstrated the range of our postgraduate research, from large language modules in medical diagnosis and child sexual abuse perpetrated by children to sustainable building materials and teaching biosecurity at school.
The panel AI, Inclusion and Education explored the role of artificial intelligence in relation to assessment, online safety and cultural narratives. It was followed by talks on low carbon concrete and the case of 'TB Mary'.
The second day focused on community engagement and cultural narratives, starting off with a keynote from Phoebe Kalungi, Public Health Programme Lead for Children and Adolescents in Tower Hamlets. The focus on community continued in talks on understanding the marginalisation of black teenagers, on critical intercultural awareness in ESOL teacher education, on decolonising oral history practice, and, later in the day, on the influence of cultural background on the nutritional status of drinks and food.
Our knowledge transfer projects were highlighted in presentations by three London Met Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associates followed by a talk on the Innovate UK ICURe Programme by Dr Edward Cole, Head of ICURe Regional Hub – London & South-East (England), and Dr Matthew Lam, Lecturer in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery.
The closing lecture was delivered by London Met alumnus Dr Anthony Phipps, Security / Consultancy and Design Lead at Lloyds Banking Group. He shared his experiences with securing our online future.
The final session saw the award of prizes, which this year were chosen by a joint student and staff expert panel. The conference was organised by the Postgraduate Research Student-Staff Liaison Forum chaired by Dr Eirini Meimaridou, the Graduate School and the Research and Postgraduate Office.
This year's conference offered something for everyone, from inspiration and collaboration to fresh perspectives on research and innovation.
