This year’s ISPAR Conference was held on Friday 22^nd June 2018 in the Gateway Building on Bedford Campus at the University of Bedfordshire. The theme for the conference centred on building collaborations within and beyond the University. As such, our keynote speaker, Professor Gurch Randhawa, Director of the Institute for Health Research at the University, opened the conference with a very well-received and though-provoking session entitled ‘#stairsnotlift’.

Continuing with this theme, the session on ‘physical activity in the local community: research and opportunities’ outlined external programmes that aim to increase physical activity levels in our local community, with talks from Angel Chater (University of Bedfordshire) and Adam Divney and Matt Corder (Luton Borough Council and Active Luton). This was followed by a range of interesting student oral and poster presentations from all areas of ISPAR, including exercise physiology, nutrition, biomechanics and the social sciences.

The conference was rounded-off with well-deserved awards to Marsha Brierley (PhD student) for the Best Student Oral Presentation and to Victoria Morari (BSc Sport Science and Personal Training) for the Best Student Poster Presentation.

In total, 87 delegates attended the conference including staff, research students, taught postgraduate and undergraduate students from the University of Bedfordshire and from external Universities, representatives from Active Luton, Team Beds and Luton, local nutritionists and relatives of students who presented.

The event was a tremendous success, with feedback forms indicating that that the most beneficial aspects were the quality of the speakers and the interesting topics. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed to the conference and those who attended – we will see you next year!