Who captured the essence of their research in the best way? The Images of Research Competition 2022 winners are announced
Sally Bashford-Squires from the School of Social Sciences took home the win with her joyful image 'The Gift of a Sheep’ that was taken during her PhD research, examining how social enterprise projects impact women’s health in rural Uganda.
The first Images of Research Competition was launched in 2019 and offers researchers across the University the chance to share their research using a single, creative image – either a photograph, digital image, or digital artwork – along with an engaging short description. At the Strategic Research Themes Conference, held on Wednesday 29 March, the winners of the third iteration of the competition, launched in 2022, were announced.
The competition is designed to highlight the breadth of research at NTU, illustrating the diversity of both the individuals involved in research and their research areas. Aiming to engage non-specialists in NTU’s broad research landscape, each image should capture the essence of our complex research projects in an accessible manner.
The competition was a great success, with over thirty-five entries submitted overall. These were put forward to a judging panel, comprised of Nathan Langman, Photography Editor from LeftLion Magazine, Ejaz Qureshi, NTU Research & Strategic Partnerships Manager, Lauren Dunning, NTU Head of Corporate & Research Marketing, and Eleanor Loughlin, NTU Researcher Development Consultant, who decided on a winner and runner up. The top six entries were then also put forward to a public vote to determine the Public Choice award, where over 700 people cast their vote for their favourite image
Postgraduate researcher Sally Bashford-Squires from the School of Social Sciences was named the overall winner for her submission ‘The Gift of a Sheep’, and she also took home the Public Choice award, receiving over 50% of the votes. Runner-up Bernadette Devilat, a Senior Research Fellow from the School of Architecture, Design & the Built Environment was also recognised for her entry ‘Inhabitable Transparency’. Bernadette and Sally both received Amazon vouchers for their entries, and Sally's image will also be featured in an upcoming issue of LeftLion magazine.
On her win, Sally commented:
“As a PhD student, it means the absolute world to me. PhD research can be quite a lonely process, so it gives me options to connect with others, and I’m hoping to connect with others today too who will have seen my winning image and will want to come and speak to me about it. It also inspires me to carry on doing what I’m doing, because it means that people are recognizing my work and that it’s of value.”
Runner-up Bernadette Devilat said of the Images of Research Competition:
“It’s Brilliant! It’s amazing and it’s recognising what I have been doing these past three years at NTU. But it’s also a way to connect very complicated things about the research in an easier and a more tangible way, because an image speaks much more than words. So I’m very happy that the image can convey this and can help people to be interested in the research and then potentially create more collaborations in the future.”