BFE Student Prize
Submissions are invited for the BFE Student Prize, awarded each year for the best individually led student presentation at the BFE Annual Conference. The initiative is designed to recognise the research and creativity of student members of our scholarly community. To be eligible for this year’s prize, you must be a presenter at the BFE Annual Conference at King’s College London (9th-12th April 2026), and you must be a 2026 BFE member.
The BFE Executive Committee aims to include a range of presentation approaches for Student Prize submissions. Do not hesitate to contact us should you have questions about the guidelines or the presentation of your submission for the prize.
There are two possible formats. Format 1 is a traditional paper submission, which will suit presenters who deliver their research at the conference from a prepared script. Format 2 is a video submission, which may suit presenters who give more extemporised presentations, and/or deliver presentations that incorporate an element of performance, and so on.
You are welcome to submit your presentation in whichever format you believe best suits its content. The BFE-appointed prize panel will be instructed to evaluate submissions for the quality of the presentation rather than its style.
Format 1: Paper
Submit a paper as a PDF, Word or RTF attachment. It is also helpful to the prize panel if you include all illustrative materials used in your conference delivery, such as PPT slides and/or sound or video examples. It is your responsibility to ensure that all submitted files have been received and that they will be easily accessible to the members of the judging panel. To this end, we recommend common formats such as MP3 and MP4, and that you avoid email attachments for large files. Please use a file-sharing service or a YouTube link (an unlisted link is fine) to transmit large audio or video files.
The submission should closely resemble what you presented at the conference. The text of the paper should be as close as possible to what you said during your 20-minute time slot, although you are welcome to include a reference list. If you played extracts from the audio or video clips you submit, you should specify these by means of time codes, e.g., [Here I played 00:00 to 01:20 of Audio Example 2].
Format 2: Video recording
Submit a video recording of your live conference presentation, omitting the Q&A. The video should be in a common format such as MP4. You can also submit your illustrative materials such as PPT slides, sound (MP3s) and audio-visual files (MP4) if these were important to your presentation and are not clear in the video. (If you played extracts from the audio or video clips you submit, you should specify the portions you played with time codes.)
It is your responsibility to ensure that all submitted files have been received and that they will be easily accessible to the members of the judging panel. To this end, we recommend common formats such as MP3 and MP4, and that you avoid email attachments for large files. Please use a file-sharing service or a YouTube link (an unlisted link is fine) to transmit large audio or video files. The submission of a written paper and/or reference list (in Word, RTF, or PDF format) as accompanying material is optional.
The prize panel will assess video submissions for their content rather than their technical quality, although the picture and sound should be clear. This allows for submissions made on a device such as a smartphone.
Should you experience technical problems or other challenges at the conference, we can accept video recordings of your presentation made after the event and before the submission deadline. Post-recorded presentations should be labelled as such and must be as close to the conference presentation as possible without revision.
This prize is not awarded for contributions to roundtables or workshops or for presentations in poster or film format. Other innovative presentations may be accepted, however, subject to the agreement of the prize panel Chair.
Submissions should be emailed to Amanda Villepastour (VillepastourAV
Cardiff.ac.uk), copying in the BFE General Administrator (adminbfe.org.uk). The deadline is noon on Monday 27th April 2026. Prize winners may be encouraged to develop submissions into publications or podcasts.