This year's Bristol Neuroscience Festival saw around 3,000 visitors come through the doors of Wills Memorial Building between the 2nd and 4th of March 2023. Having had to cancel the 2020 event with very little warning due to the COVID-19 lockdown, this festival was perfectly timed to celebrate ten years of festival frolics and the 20th anniversary of the Bristol Neuroscience Research Network.
The festival kicked off in late 2022 with the launch of our Brain Art Competition. The competition saw a total of 182 art pieces being submitted by schools and community groups across Bristol relating to the theme of "Connections". Prize winners and shortlisted projects are on display in the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) between 7 March - 9 April 2023.
Image: The Brain Art Competition poster showing a few of the entries received
The Great Hall provided the main focus with hands-on activities from across the spectrum of neuroscience at the University of Bristol, including knitting a neuron, colouring and creating a paper brain hat, levitation of a ball using brain waves, being hooked up to a mechical claw and manipulating objects, and the demonstration of a robot arm used in brain surgery, amongst many, many others. Researchers in movement, memory, sleep and behaviour (to name but a few) were on hand, and we welcomed several exhibitors including Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol Drugs Project, Off the Record (a mental health social movement covering Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset) and the British Neuroscience Association.
Image: Students of the South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SWBio DTP) manning their stall
A side room housed the "Brain Dome". This joint project between the University of Bristol and Explorer Dome was funded by an Alzheimer's Research UK public engagement grant. This interactive experience allows participants to learn about how the brain changes as we grow older through a series of talks, questions, images and interviews with dementia researchers in an easy-to-digest format for people of all ages. In the same room a team of researchers from the School of Psychological Science were running an active experiment on improving eyewitness testimony, and managed to recruit an astounding 220 participants!
Image: The Brain Dome
Day One (2 March 2023) was dedicated to primary schools, and we welcomed over 500 Key Stage 2 students over two sessions. The second day saw a similar number of secondary school pupils (KS3-5), with one group coming from as far afield as Plymouth! The third and final day was open to the general public and included a series of "Best of Bristol" talks covering learning and memory, sleep, modelling brain function, future treatments for Parkinson's disease, and neurosurgery. The festival culminated in a public lecture delivered by Professor of Psychopharmacology Emma Robinson (School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol) and Edmond J Safra Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology Professor David Nutt (Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London) who gave a joint talk entitled What psychedelic research can contribute to the treatment of mental health Disoders and our understanding of how the brain works.
Image: The Great Hall exhibition as seen from the balcony
The Bristol Neuroscience Festival is one of the University of Bristol's main public engagement events which regularly attracts in the region of 3,000 visitors from across Bristol and the South West. It celebrates all things brain-related to audiences of all ages, and runs thanks to a small army of volunteers comprising undergraduate students all the way up to senior Principal Investigators and clinicians. The enthusiasm of these volunteers was shared with everyone who came through our doors during the three days, and returned in equal measure. This festival was a resounding success all around.
If you have questions on the 2023 Festival, contact bnf-2023@bristol.ac.uk.