ICUR 2025

About ICUR 2025

The annual International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) 2025 was hosted across online and in person platforms on 18th and 19th June 2025. Presentations were delivered in spoken, poster, and alternative forms by undergraduate researchers from 18 university institutions across 15 countries and 6 continents.

ICUR returned in 2025 for its second June iteration. New initiatives for this year included an expanded and improved Resource Hub on the ICUR Portal, an exciting programme of Engagement and Communication training for presenters, a keynote organised by Nanyang Technological University and delivered across interdisciplinary and international boundaries, and a hybrid programme of complementary sessions at the event itself. The event has received wide acclaim from participants, student co-creators, and academic staff, and we look forward to building on this year’s success as we look ahead to ICUR 2026.

Participating Institutions

Keynote Address

“Interdisciplinary Ways of Knowing Through Sustainable Practice”

This presentation examines how interdisciplinary, materially grounded research can expand new ways of knowing in undergraduate education while modelling collaborative faculty mentorship across the sciences, humanities, and design. Anchored in a co-supervised URECA project initiated by faculty from the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, the School of Humanities, and the School of Art, Design and Media, the project engages with sustainability through a process that is both intellectually integrated and materially situated.

Engaged in joint inquiry across contexts, our team explored NTU’s natural and cultural ecosystems through shared interdisciplinary practice. We began by collecting leaves from campus flora, extracting plant-based pigments in the chemistry laboratory, and investigating the materials, techniques, and visual principles used to illuminate medieval manuscripts. This historical research informed our typographic exploration, enabling the contemporary design of drop caps grounded in both ecological and cultural insight.

Through this collaborative process, material objects functioned not only as research artefacts but as epistemic tools, enabling students and faculty to co-create knowledge across disciplinary lines. By embedding sustainability within both content and method, this project demonstrates how interdisciplinary research can be enacted as a rigorous, embodied practice grounded in environmental ethics, creative interpretation, and shared material engagement.

Katherine Storm Hindley is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she teaches medieval English literature and the history of the book.  She is also co-Director of the London International Palaeography School, which provides courses in palaeography and manuscript studies to students from across the globe.  Her first book, Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2023.

Mihaiela (Ela) Stuparu is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Students) at the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). Ela’s research group is driven by the synthetic challenge associated with the preparation of molecularly curved nanostructures. Ela is a passionate teacher and recognized by many teaching awards at NTU. Since 2024, Ela is a member of the NTU’s Teaching Council. A passionate advocate for enhancing women representation in STEM, Ela is also the Co-Chair for Promotion of Women in Engineering, Research and Science (POWERS@NTU) and Women@NTU.

Lisa Winstanley is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. With over 20 years of commercial design practice and more than a decade of international research and teaching, Lisa leads studies on ethical design practices and visual literacy. She is the founder of the Design Ethics and Visual Integrity Research Lab (DEVIL), where her scholarly work explores visual plagiarism, interdisciplinary social responsibility, and ethical collaboration. Her creative practice has garnered over 80 international awards, including the Red Dot Design Award, with exhibitions in 30 countries at venues such as Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery.

Student Directors

Read about our ICUR 2025 Student Directors at Warwick and NTU on our Impact blog!