RCP virtual poster competition 2025

Applications open for the RCP virtual poster competition on 29 March 2025 and will close at midnight on 21 May 2025

This competition is open to resident doctors working in the medical specialties at all levels – including international medical graduates, foundation doctors, internal medicine trainees (IMT), higher specialty trainees (HST) and MTI doctors – as well as medical students and locally employed doctors working at an equivalent level to those in training (eg clinical fellows, senior clinical fellows). Doctors in a HST post (or a locally employed equivalent) should be working in an RCP recognised medical specialty. To be eligible, you should not be expecting to complete training (ie obtain your CCT) before 1 November 2025.

All submitted abstracts will be reviewed and shortlisted applicants will be invited to prepare a poster for virtual presentation to a judging panel at a competition which will be held on 8 and 9 October 2025.

All posters submitted to our virtual poster competition are also considered by the editorial teams of the RCP journals and to see if they offer scope for expanding into full journal articles for potential publication in one of our peer reviewed journals, Clinical Medicine, and the Future Healthcare Journal.

Eligibility criteria

The lead/presenting author must be a current and subscribing member of the RCP.

Not yet a member? It's not too late to join and enter this competition. Join here and discover the benefits of being part of a global community of over 40,000 members and fellows, spanning every career stage from medical student to retired consultant.

Applications from public health trainees will be accepted if they are subscribing members of the RCP.

This competition is not open to surgical trainees and submissions from medicine trainees must not relate to surgical projects.

The competition is limited to two entries per trainee as named author. Any subsequent submissions will be rejected. Should you wish to withdraw an abstract that you have already submitted, please contact the regional team - email postercompetition@rcp.ac.uk

Group submissions are accepted, but a lead author must be identified with all other authors named as a co-author. The lead author must be eligible as per the above eligibility criteria.

As this is a competition for trainees only, consultants should not be named as co-authors on the application. They should however be referenced on the poster if your abstract is shortlisted to present.

Categories

Posters can describe any of the following topics:

  • Research - including clinical, translational and innovation
  • Education, training and medical professionalism
  • Quality improvement and patient safety/audit
  • Clinical/case reports/digital health.

Abstracts should consist of a maximum of 500 words and not have been presented or published anywhere else.

Abstracts will be scored out of five against the following criteria:

  • Impact
  • Quality of evidence
  • Originality of research
  • Relevance to clinical practice.

Virtual competition

The virtual competition on 8-9 October will be divided into four sessions, one for each category. Authors of shortlisted abstracts will be invited to attend the relevant session for their category.

Prizes

All shortlisted applicants will receive a certificate.

One winner and one highly commended trainee will be announced in each category.

The lead author of the winning and highly commended entry from each category will receive a free virtual place at Medicine 2026.

Winning and highly commended abstracts will be published in the RCP virtual poster competition digest 2025.

Submit your abstract

How to prepare a poster presentation

This video was originally recorded for the RCP medicine careers showcase. Although Dr Clifford Lisk focuses on in-person poster presentations, many of the top-tips are applicable to digital posters and may be useful to applicants.

Supporting material

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