BILT Briefing Issue 148

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News and opportunities
Blogs and resources
Events

News and opportunities

Welcome to 2025/26

We’re back slightly earlier than planned with our first Briefing of the academic year as we have a really exciting event taking place next week (w/c 8th September) that we wanted to share with you!

We really hope that everyone had a good summer break and is coming back feeling rested and refreshed. We posted on our LinkedIn (if you’re not following us, why not!?) and asked our followers what they were most looking forward to this year – here are some of their responses below:

Temple Quarter – Lecture Theatre in the Round event

On Thursday 11 September BILT are partially ‘mocking up’ the Temple Quarter teaching in the round space in the Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building.

The new Temple Quarter teaching in the round space breaks away from the traditional front-facing classroom model and creates a more dynamic, interactive environment. The circular space, only 6 rows deep and seating over 300, brings students and lecturers closer together ensuring everyone has equal visibility and presence. This setup encourages dialogue rather than passive listening, promotes greater engagement and more active participation in learning.

Come and see what this new and exciting space might look and feel like – two opportunities are available to all staff:

Teaching in the round mock-up introduction: 10.00-11.00am

Tansy Jessop, PVC Education and Students and Mia Stevens, SU UG Education Officer will outline the vision for the space and the experience for students. Following the short talks from Tansy and Mia, Mark France, Department of Theatre will outline what such a space affords and some top tips for staff using it. The one-hour event will conclude with a Q and A session. The event booking is on a first come, first served basis.

Immediately following this event:

Teaching in the round drop-in: 11.15am – 12.15pm

Come and see for yourself what the new space might look and feel like. No need to book – bring your staff card to access the drop in.

Visit this page for more info and booking..

Student Research Journal – Issue 6

We are so pleased to share that the sixth edition of the Student Research Journal is now available!

We are so proud to be a part of this cutting-edge, completely student-run publication. This year there have been two brilliant improvements – the first is that all journal papers have been assigned a DOI, meaning that their research can now more easily be cited. This is a huge step in developing the careers of these student researchers.

The second is that we have also added a special, interdisciplinary section to the journal, covering topics that cross the boundaries of traditional disciplines, such as AI and sustainability.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the Editor in Chief, Jay Liu, as well as the 102 editorial contributors and all of the authors!

Access the Journal on the BILT website.

National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) Schemes 2026 – Expressions of Interest and workshops

The Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching (BILT) is accepting expressions of interest (EOIs) for the 2026 NTF and CATE schemes. Those interested in submitting an EOI are strongly encouraged to attend a virtual workshop which will outline further details about the schemes, including contributions from award winners and guidance on completing an EOI. Workshop dates are as follows:

NTF workshop – Monday 15 September 2025, 3pm – 4pm. Register to attend.
CATE workshop – Tuesday 16 September 2025, 3pm – 4pm. Register to attend.

Find out more on the NTF and CATE BILT webpages. Closing date for EOIs – Monday 6 October, 9am.

In addition, Advance HE are running free, virtual roadshows for those interested in applying further details are available on the Teaching Excellence Awards webpages.

Participatory Research Fund 2025-2026 – Call for Applications Now open

We are pleased to share that we have received confirmation that the University of Bristol will be awarded a Research England Participatory Research Fund (PRF) for the 2025–26 financial year. As such, the Public Engagement team is running another internal open call for participatory research projects.

Please visit the Sharepoint site for updated information and fund guidance.

About the Participatory Research Fund 2025/26

Participatory Research Fund supports participatory or co-produced research, where researchers and non-academic partners work together to co-create knowledge, while sharing power and responsibility. 

There are two awards offered under the call this year: 

An award for pilot projects that test experimental participatory approaches, of up to £10,000 
A follow-on award for projects that build on an existing participatory project or body of work, of up to £20,000

We are particularly interested in projects that map onto the strategic research themes, with a specific focus on projects that meet the ‘Future through partnership’ aim of the University’s Civic mission.

Key Dates

Call deadline: Friday 26 September 2025  

Decisions communicated: w/c 27 October 2025  

Project timeline: Projects will run from 1 November 2025 to 30 June 2026. All project spend must be completed by 17 July 2025.

How to apply and find out more:

For more information and to apply, see here.
Watch short films on previous PRF projects here.

If you are interested in applying and would like more information in advance, please feel free to get in touch with Hannah Berg.

Blogs and resources

Anti-conference series – full series
Professor James Norman has now left the University but his final contributions to the BILT blog have been shared here in this series about planning and carrying out an ‘anti-conference’.

What’s the moral of the story?
Aniekan Essien, a lecturer in Business Analytics, has shared this lovely piece on case-based learning and how he feels that it benefits his students.

Why Teachers Should Consider Students’ Working Memory Limits When Designing Learning Tasks
EAP Tutor Nicholas Maxwell has shared this accessible and practical blog on working memory – which includes a fun little activity to take part in!

Enhancing Engineering Education with AI (miniseries)
Joel Ross and Rich Pyle posted this miniseries at the start of summer, sharing their experience of embedding AI into their unit.

What is Regenerative Education?
Anke Schwittay, keynote speaker at this year’s BILT Conference and Associate Dean for Global and Civic Engagement of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sussex, has recently posted on her blog about events that she attended – including speaking at our BILT conference earlier in the year.