Thanks to generous support from The Health Foundation, we again supported two attendees to attend the HSR UK conference 2025 through our Hardship Fund. One of this year's attendees, Bianca Unguruneau, reflects on what it meant to her to be able to access the event and what HSR UK could - and should - do further to improve access and widen participation.
As a medical student, I found it very challenging to fund attending the HSR UK conference before I learned about the hardship fund. While my medical school does have a fund for conference expenses, it is so thinly stretched that it only covered my train ticket and dinner for the two days of the conference - covering registration fees, train tickets, and hotel accommodations in a distant city felt almost impossible.
I believe this experience is difficult for any student to fund, but it particularly affects widening participation students as applications for academic positions often award points for conference presentations and prizes. As a result, this could exacerbate inequalities in accessing career opportunities - not due to merit, but simply because of limited financial resources during the early career stage.
Thanks to the hardship fund, I was able to attend the conference and fully engage with the experience. Since the fund covered my hotel fees for two nights, I didn't have to make a 3.5 hour journey on the morning of the first day to save on accommodation costs. Although it felt a bit intimidating to be one of the youngest people in the room, I am so happy that I’ve had the opportunity to present my research at a national conference for the first time.
I would however consider improving access for students for example by having a student rate and maybe advertising/confirming this fund sooner. I only found out about the fund at the end of April and received the confirmation that my application was successful just a few weeks before the conference so I am imagining many would have already decided they can’t afford to attend by then, especially those who were considering applying to present their research, as this happens months before.
The overall experience of attending HSR UK has been extremely helpful for me. I managed to make some valuable connections and may soon start a part-time research assistant position as a result. This will help me tremendously in making a competitive application to the specialised foundation programme when I finish medical school and continue a career in research in addition to clinical practice. I couldn’t have achieved all of this without the support of the hardship fund and my supervisor and mentor, Justin Aunger.