Showcase your work at the Bath Digital Festival

We are excited that the University is again sponsoring Bath Digital Festival this year, and are issuing a call to researchers from disciplines across the University to come along and get involved.

The Festival is spread over three days, with three themes as follows:

• 13th May: Space, Beyond the Horizon
  • Highlighting the South West’s role as the UK’s third-largest aerospace cluster, this theme explores both the literal and figurative boundaries of space. Delve into immersive digital environments, rethink physical and workplace spaces, and consider the human drive to explore and create.
• 14th May: Sustain, Enabling the Future
  • From sustainable business models to mindful personal growth, this theme redefines what sustainability means for people, the planet, and communities. It’s a call to action for ideas that go the distance—whether in design, education, or urban development.
• 15th May: The Human and Beyond
  • With a focus on health, life sciences, and the intersection of technology with the human experience, this theme tackles neurodiversity, mental health, and advancements like IoT, robotics, and quantum computing. It’s about enhancing what it means to be human.

Each day of the festival features a morning Showcase, at which research groups can share the work they're doing that is relevant to one of the above themes - it doesn't have to be inherently digital but will need a digital angle. This is a great chance to recruit participants for your research, to give your PhD students or Post Docs some experience in speaking to the public about their work, or to meet and mingle with sector leaders from our local area.

Ideally, showcased research will be engaging and give visitors a chance to get 'hands-on' in some way - for example, last year our researchers studying rugby scrums brought their scrum machine, and visitors were able to try it out - seeing how their use of the machine then generated data the researchers can use.

If you would like your work to be considered for the showcase please email outlining what you'd be showing, how much space it could need, and which theme you think it would best fit. Contact us here. 

Larger events

There is also time on each day's schedule for larger, more focused events, and the Festival team is welcoming new submissions for these slots. These will ideally be interactive sessions that tackle a widely-engaging topic - for example last year Dr Lee Moore from the University joined a panel session on 'The Power of the Mind: technology, psychology and sports' alongside other local thought leaders, and the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human ran a session titled 'Beyond boundaries: the Future of Human Augmentation' that featured an expert panel and interactive demonstrations that gave a comprehensive overview of current trends and future possibilities in the field.

If you feel you have a suggestion for one of these larger event slots please email with an outline - consider that as the goal of the festival is to be interactive and fun, you need to be clear on how you will make your session fit this ethos, and which external partners you might look to work with. Contact us here. 

Fringe events

It is possible to run related fringe events around the Festival that can be promoted to festival goers, and benefit from association with the festival but will require full management by you or your team. This is a suitable option if you're planning to launch a new research centre, or need input on a specific project that wouldn't fit in the showcase or work as a core festival event. If you would like to explore this option, contact us with details and we'll aim to help you. Contact us here. 

Support

There is support available from both within the University and from the Festival team if you have an idea for an event and want to ensure it is engaging and innovative. Mention in your email when you contact us that you'd like to access that support and we'll do our best to help you.