This is a guest blog by current student Isobel Butler studying BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing.

I applied for the SURE conference as I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for me to share my research with others. I also wished to meet people who had similar interests in research and to learn something from their areas of focus. One thing I did not expect was the sheer variety of topics presented outside of my own field of Health and Social Science (HSS). I enjoyed meeting people from a variety of backgrounds who were so passionate about their work, and I shared many interesting discussions with them. Meeting individuals from other specialties within HSS was also very useful; for instance, I spoke to some physiotherapy students who presented ideas that I had never heard of before which had high relevance to my work. The variety of formats available to present your work I found to be beneficial, as it allowed individuals to choose which best suited their presenting style.

I opted for the poster presentation, which enabled me to speak one-to-one with a number of people about my findings. Such people included academics from HSS, who allowed me a good amount of time to explain my ideas and seemed genuinely interested in them. This initiated many thought-provoking discussions, some of which I was able to take suggestions from to develop my research further. Overall I highly recommend the SURE conference, as it provides a perfect platform to showcase your research no matter how much experience you currently have. The whole atmosphere is very supportive and it was lovely to receive positive comments about my work and improve my presentation skills. Having my work recognised and receiving a prize from SUBU was particularly encouraging and has further sparked my interest in research; I very much hope to return to SURE again in the near future!