Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Conference

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SURE 2024


This is the website for the SURE 2024 conference taking place on the 18th October 2024 on the Atlantic Technological University’s Galway Campus. The theme of this years conference is Evidence Based Research.

 

The SURE 2024 Conference will be the seventh in the series of Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Conferences. Students from throughout Ireland who are completing their Final Year Project in a science discipline in 2023-24 will be presenting their undergraduate research work to this conference.

 

The aims of each of the SURE conferences are to:

  • Provide current students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the work which has been undertaken by recent graduates, and the career opportunities that exist for graduates in Scientific disciplines.
  • Provide recent graduates with an opportunity to gain a reviewed publication based on the scientific research undertaken by them during their undergraduate studies in SURE-J, Ireland’s first and only undergraduate expert reviewed research journal.
  • Celebrate the academic achievements of recent graduates in the scientific disciplines.
  • Provide a multi-disciplinary scientific forum through which undergraduate research outputs can be disseminated to students, researchers, academic professionals and industry.

In addition to an annual conference, the SURE Network offers students an opportunity to submit to the SURE Journal: SURE_J. Students who have completed very high quality work should consider making a submission to the journal. Information is available on the SURE Journal page.


Request to Lecturers

Lecturers who wish to volunteer as reviewers for the conference are asked to submit their details (link to be provided shortly), by Friday, 17th May 2024.


Call for Submissions

Students and graduates who have recently completed an undergraduate research project (NFQ Level 8 or NFQ Level 7) in a Scientific discipline are invited to submit a 250 word abstract for an oral or poster presentation by Monday, 27th May 2024. The project must be an undergraduate project, so projects completed as part of Higher Diploma and other postgraduate programmes are not eligible.

Submissions are invited for the following, and related, disciplines:

  • Analytical Science
  • Biology
  • Biopharmaceutical Science
  • Chemistry
  • Computing
  • Environmental Science
  • Food Science
  • Health Science and Nutrition
  • Land Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Nursing
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Physics
  • Materials Science
  • Sport Science
  • STEM Communication
  • STEM Education
  • STEM Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • STEM Technology
  • STEM Informatics
  • Sustainability

Submissions are welcomed for both lab-based and desk-based research projects.


Making a Submission

The process for making an abstract submission, which you must do by midnight on Monday, 27th May 2024, is as follows:

  1. Register for an account with Oxford abstracts (link to be provided shortly), our abstract management system. Please use a non-college email that you know you will have access to in October 2024 when registering for your account.
  2. Once you have signed into the Oxford abstracts system you will see the Abstract Submission form (link to be provided shortly). Please read through this form carefully, noting all questions that must be filled in and the author information required. It is here that you will submit your 250-word abstract and answer two associated 100-word questions. Provide all the required details, including the list of authors and their affiliations. Take care when writing your abstract and make sure to proofread before submission. This abstract should clearly and concisely communicate your research to a scientific audience that may not have expertise in your own discipline. Remember to include some brief information on research background, outline your research question, the main methodological approach taken or methods used, main result summary and concluding statement interpreting your results and describing their impact.
  3. Download, prepare and upload to Oxford Abstracts a completed SURE 2024 Supervisor Consent Form. Ensure that this form is signed by your project supervisor and all other co-authors before uploading to the Oxford Abstracts system. Your abstract will not be accepted without having uploaded a completed consent form.
  4. Your submission will be reviewed* by two experts in your field, and you and your co-authors will notified of the outcome in early July 2024. If accepted, you will then be advised on the dates for the submission of an updated version of your work for inclusion in the conference materials.

*note – Abstracts are double-blinded before review. This means that the reviewers won’t know your identity and you won’t know their identity. The consent form containing your name and your supervisor’s name are retained by the Conference Committee only and not sent to the reviewers.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to generate or paraphrase any materials, including abstract, question responses, poster contents, is strictly forbidden.


Presenting your Work

Successful authors will be invited to make an oral presentation or a poster presentation at the conference. Oral presentations are 10 minutes in duration. Posters are formatted as A1 portrait and will be available virtually on the conference website in addition to being presented on the day via a 90 second oral presentation during the poster spotlight sessions. Poster authors must be available for discussions about the poster during the conference. All accepted authors will be issued with guidelines for the final version of their presentation or poster in advance of the conference. All posters and prepared presentations must contain the university logo, the SURE logo and all authors and co-authors names and affiliations. As the theme of this years conference is Evidence Based Research presenting authors will be asked to reflect on the methods they used during their project to ensure the academic integrity, rigor, and robustness of their experimental data, research findings and thesis writings.


ATU Galway 2024 SURE conference Local organising committee:

  • Therese Montgomery (chair of conference committee)
  • Brigid Hooban
  • Leisha McGrath
  • Cormac Quigley
  • Niall Maloney
  • Karen Keane
  • Siobhan Leahy