Postgraduate competition

The Nutrition Society Postgraduate Competition offers current Society members who are postgraduate students registered for a Higher Degree the opportunity to present an original short review paper on their research topic in the Postgraduate Symposium at either the Irish Postgraduate Conference or the Nutrition Society Congress. All winners of the competition will have the opportunity to have their review published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. You may also be invited to host a webinar for the Nutrition Society Academy. 

Applicants are advised to refer to the ‘How to Apply’ guidelines for submission which are found within the FAQs (at the bottom of this page). Submissions include an abstract (based on the proposed review paper), a completed structured proforma and a short biography.

The Irish Postgraduate Competition winners will present at the Irish Postgraduate Conference in Athlone (21-23 February 2024). The Irish Postgraduate Competition winners will present at the Postgraduate conference because the Irish Section will be hosting the Nutrition Society Congress 2024, and therefore for 2024 there will be no Irish Section Conference. Although winners of the Irish Postgraduate Competition will not present at the Nutrition Society Congress (but instead at the Irish Postgraduate conference), they will in addition be invited to attend the Nutrition Society Congress in Belfast (2-5 July 2024), with compliments. The submission deadline is 15 December at 12:00 GMT. Please submit your application HERE

The UK Postgraduate Competition winners will present at the Nutrition Society Congress in Belfast (2-5 July 2024). The submission deadline is 25 March 2024 at 12:00 GMT. Please submit your application HERE

Please note that applicants are only permitted to submit one application. Applicants cannot submit applications for both competitions in the same year. 

The Irish and the UK Postgraduate Competitions are open to current members of the Nutrition Society who are postgraduate students, currently registered for a Higher Degree. The applicant will be required to select at time of application whether they would like to submit to the Irish or the UK Postgraduate Competition and will only ever be eligible to take part in one symposium. Applicants must be studying at an Irish or UK Institution at the time of application, and should not have submitted their final thesis. Awarded applicants must be available to deliver a 25 minute presentation at the conference to which their application has been submitted. 

Presentation criteria: presentations should consist of a review of the literature and can include the student’s own work where appropriate*. 

Since the review presented will be published, it is expected that the content of the review must not have been submitted for publication or published elsewhere and as such it is likely that preference will be given to applicants who are in the final year of their postgraduate programme.

* As review papers are published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society they cannot contain primary data (i.e. unpublished data) and as such any work completed by the student that is included in the review paper would already be published or in press.

For further information, criteria and applications forms to prepare your submission, please refer to the FAQs 'How to apply' section below. 

Get in touch

If you have any queries, please contact the Society's Events Team.

How to apply?

Applicants are required to provide:

  1. An abstract of the proposed topic of their review (not more than 500 words (excl title/authors/references)).  Abstracts must include: a title, author details (including name, affiliation and supervisor/s name), aims/scope/objective of the review. Abstracts will be scored on originality and how the review contributes to knowledge. The abstract should represent an outline of the proposed review paper, this can build on and incorporate the student’s own research, including any published papers. Download the submission guidelines here.
  2. A structured proforma should be submitted including a list of educational qualifications, PhD title and date of submission (expected or actual), supervisors, any previous awards and prizes, publications and presentations undertaken to date. Download the proforma here.
  3. A 250 word biography which will be used for the conference programme booklet (if the applicant were successful).