Research events
Interested in postgraduate research at Salford and want to find out more? Why not attend one of our events that take place each year. Find out more below.
Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference 23-24 June 2026
The Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) is a forum for developing research, offering a space for postgraduate researchers to exchange ideas. This two-day conference is run annually and attracts a wide audience of researchers across a range of disciplines. The conference is the biggest event in the University’s Doctoral School calendar. Attendees can hear about the incredible research being conducted across the University, with presentations carefully designed to communicate the benefits of their findings to all audiences.
2026 marks the 25th anniversary of our SPARC event, and helping us to celebrate will be two fantastic keynote speakers:
- On Tuesday 23 June we welcome internationally-renowned nanoscientist Dame Professor Ijoema Uchegbu. Professor Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London, President of Wolfson College Cambridge, and a governor on the Wellcome Trust board. As an inventor, technologies developed in her laboratory (Nanomerics Ltd.) have won prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
- On Wednesday 24 June our very own Professor Seamus Simpson, professor of Media Policy, will take the stage for his talk Internet governance - How did we get here and what does the future look like? Professor Simpson has written extensively on European and global media governance, and his research has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the European Union and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He is a past Chair of the International Communication Association Communication Law and Policy Division and was one of the founding editors of the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Communication (Oxford University Press).
A full and varied agenda of speakers will be confirmed across both days, and the event will also feature the popular Three Minute ThesisTM competition and reveal the winner of our Doctoral School Supervisor of the Year Award.
SPARC is free to attend – both in person on our campus, and online. Whether you’re a member of staff or student at Salford or a different university, or a member of the public who would like to find out more about research at Salford, it’s open to everyone. You're welcome to attend just one of the days, or the full conference, please select which dates when booking. Booking will close on 15 June 2026.