The RCP virtual poster competition offers medical students, foundation doctors and resident doctors working in medical specialties the opportunity to share their unique work and research.
The virtual nature of this national competition allows you to participate wherever you are located; England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Read more about the benefits of this national competition here.
Downloads and links
The application process
Applicants need to submit an abstract of their proposed poster, which should be based on their work in one of the following areas (maximum 500 words excluding references):
- Research - including clinical, translational and innovation
- Education, training and medical professionalism
- Quality improvement and patient safety/audit
- Clinical/case reports/digital health.
Applications are made via Shocklogic - an online competition platform. The link to our application portal will be made available via this webpage on 29 March 2025. If you'd like us to contact you when submissions open, we recommend you register your interest.
All submitted abstracts will be reviewed by senior physicians and shortlisted applicants will be asked to prepare a poster to present at one of four competition sessions. The virtual competition panels will take place on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 October 2025 and will be divided into four sessions, one for each category. Authors of shortlisted abstracts will be invited to attend the relevant session.
Eligibility criteria
This competition is open to resident doctors working in the medical specialties at all levels in the UK – 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.
The lead/presenting author of any submission must be a current and subscribing member of the RCP. Non-subscribing members will need to become a member to submit their application, and remain subscribing members throughout the duration of the competition if successful.
Applications from public health resident doctors 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 resident doctor 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 medical students and resident doctors 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.
Contact us
The RCP virtual poster competition is run and delivered by the RCP Regional team, for more information, contact PosterCompetition@rcp.ac.uk