- All shortlisted applicants and co-authors will receive a certificate for their portfolio
- One winner and one highly commended entry will be announced in each category
- The lead author of the winning and highly commended entries from each category will receive a free virtual delegate place at Medicine 2027
- All shortlisted posters submitted to our virtual poster competition are considered by the editorial teams of the RCP journals who will assess whether they offer scope for expanding into full journal articles for potential publication in one of our peer reviewed journals, Clinical Medicine, and the Future Healthcare Journal.
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):
- Quality improvement and patient safety/audit
- Education, training and medical professionalism
- Research - including clinical, translational and innovation
- Clinical/case reports/digital health
Applications are made via Shocklogic - an online competition platform which will be available via this webpage on Saturday 28 March 2026 and closed at midnight on Wednesday 27 May 2026.
All submitted abstracts will be reviewed by senior physicians and only shortlisted applicants will be asked to prepare a poster to present at one of four virtual competition sessions.
The virtual competition panels will take place on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 September and will be divided into four sessions, one for each category.
Authors of shortlisted abstracts will be invited to attend the relevant session as below:
Wednesday 23 September 2026
- Quality improvement and patient safety/audit [morning session]
- Education, training and medical professionalism [afternoon session]
Thursday 24 September 2026
- Research - including clinical, translational and innovation [morning session]
- Clinical/case reports/digital health [afternoon session]
Lead authors must be available to attend the virtual competition for their category.
Why apply?
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 December 2026.
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