Create Your Research 10:00-12:00 19 November On campus and online

Email sent 22 October Create Your Research, 10:00-12:00 19 November, on campus and online

Dear Postgraduate Researchers,

Also for the attention Research-degree-related staff

Since 2018 the Graduate School has encouraged the OU's Postgraduate Researchers to express their research in cake form, to coincide with the Great British Bake Off competition broadcasting on UK television. This year we're going to try something a little different.

A batter (better) take on creativity

For our next competition 10:00-12:00, 19 November 2025, we’ve decided to shake things up and add a whole new layer of creativity. We’ve reimagined the format - rebranding the competition as Create Your Research - blowing the oven doors off to welcome a broader range of talent. This exciting change makes the event more inclusive, inviting participants to explore and showcase their research through any creative medium, not just cake.

When science meets sponge

We've learnt that different formats may suit different ideas. Our STEM scientists have always impressed us with their creativity in Bake Your Research. They may have had a slight head start: projects concerning 'strata' and 'moonscapes' lending themselves naturally to sponge form. Of course, ingenuity didn't stop with STEM: we've seen spectacular cakes representing more abstract concepts such as the Sustainable Development goals, Embedding impact in research projects and the Nietzschean abyss. 

How could you create your research?

So, if baking is your thing - go for it! We’d love to taste your creations. But this year, the possibilities go far beyond cake. You can rap, dance, sing, act, paint, sew, knit, crochet, film, photograph, write haikus, perform stand-up, busk or express your research through music. In fact, however you choose to represent your research, we want to see it, taste it, hear it and feel it! Or of course smell it...

Serious silliness

You may be feeling that serious researchers don't have time for this but please let us persuade you otherwise:

• Thinking of interesting ways to engage an audience and communicate your research gives you valuable skills and, even, new insights into your doctoral problem.
• Coming together as an interdisciplinary community enriches your connections and the research culture.
• Having fun, laughing and being silly arguably has a place in all our lives.

Next step and dates

• First, take a look at this Creativity in research communication padlet which shows lots of previous cakes, as well as some memes, dances, Lego stop motions and articles on how to do slam poetry, make a comic or Dance Your PhD.
• Then, when you're totally inspired, go to this Form (quickly before you change your mind) to tell us that you're interested in submitting an entry (by 31 October).
• We'll contact all interested PGRs at the start of November so we can plan the event.
• By 18 November, upload your entry to the online gallery (or description of what you will perform live on 19 November).
• On 19 November, all PGRs and research-related staff are welcome to gather in the Library Atrium for a spontaneous festival of creativity, with refreshments. We will prepare a programme of 5-minute performances between 10:30-11:00.
• Community voting will decide the winners and there will be prizes.

Thinking caps on and all the best!

Any questions, come to the Graduate School FAO Judith Taylor.

Jude on behalf of the Graduate School Team