BSG Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) Conference

Please describe the event you attended.
I attended the 2026 Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) conference organized by the British Society of Gerontology (BSG), on 22nd and 23rd June 2026, at the East Oxford Community Centre. This annual conference brings together early career researchers from various institutions. The conference theme was “Pathways to Impact: Publishing, Policy and Practice for Early Career Researchers.”

What drew you to attend this event?
This was my second time attending this conference. Previously, in 2024, Emilie McSwiggan and I led a leadership workshop together (Reflections from that first attendance can be found here). The 2026 conference was a valuable opportunity to reconnect with some PhD researchers I originally met two years ago.
The conference serves as an excellent platform for early career researchers to present their work and receive feedback from both peers and established researchers. The research presented focused exclusively on the global ageing population across various disciplines and topics, making it similar to the ACRC academy.
In addition to research presentations, the event had editors of reputable journals like Journal of Global Ageing and the Journal of Ageing and Society. These editors provided guidance and best practices for publishing.

How was your experience attending the event? What were the highlights and key moments?
I was thrilled to attend the event and had an amazing time from the moment I arrived in Oxford until the conference concluded. I took the opportunity to explore the University Parks (University of Oxford) which covers over 70 acres of land with sports pitches, exotic trees and a river. I also visited Oxford Brookes University.
On the first day of the event, we had three-minute thesis style presentations, a networking session and a workshop on how to craft abstracts. The first day ended with a ghost tour by Uncomfortable Oxford from which I learnt about Ghost stories of the city that I had never heard about before.
On the second day, I presented in the Pecha Kucha session: Structural inequalities and the limits of inclusion in ageing systems. It was my first time to disseminate research findings using a Pecha Kucha which consists of 20 slides presented in 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20 seconds per slide with automatic advance). I am glad I selected this format which challenged me to try a different style of presentation. I would highly encourage other conferences to consider it as an option in addition to posters, 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) and the “traditional” presentation format. I received positive feedback from the audience. I also learnt a lot from other presenters, especially those who had ever presented this format before.

One of the highlights was the workshop titled “Small text, big impact: Crafting Powerful abstracts” by Dr Mengxing Joshi who also doubles as the ERA Publications Co-Ordinator. The workshop format provided a hands-on opportunity to review abstracts from our go-to databases. We critically discussed whether each abstract contained all the essential components like introduction, methods, results, and conclusion. This exercise highlighted how vital each section is for a compelling journal or conference submission, whether the abstract is structured or unstructured.
I also built new connections with other researchers who are at different stages of their careers, creating opportunities for potential future collaborations.

How was this event relevant to your research, interdisciplinarity and the ACRC Academy?
All the work presented focused on the global ageing population, which aligns perfectly with the objectives of the ACRC academy. Some of the research areas included dementia, older migrants, care, age-responsive patient education, retirement, biological ageing, to mention but a few.
Furthermore, interdisciplinarity in research was seen by the different professional backgrounds of the presenters. Researchers represented various disciplines from distinct institutions.

Any lessons learnt / best practices that you’d like to share?
Pecha Kucha presentation style was my main takeaway from this comprehensive two-day conference. I would highly recommend that other conferences consider this format, as it enables a wide variety of topics to be presented effectively within a limited timeframe.