The Manchester Undergraduate Dental Research Society was founded in 2014. It was created by students, for students – not only students at the University of Manchester, but for dental schools across the UK. The idea for the society and its national research conference was envisioned by Mohammad Jaberansari who put a team together along with Ismail Khalil. Over the years, many different committees have worked to expand the society to what you see today.
As a society, our ultimate goals are to promote academia to undergraduates and highlight the latest advancements in dentistry, as well as helping to develop students’ core practical skills. Our events range from talks and workshops to our nationally renowned annual British Undergraduate Dental Research Conference. The conference is a forum for presenting the latest developments in research and innovation to undergraduate dental students. It also provides a unique networking opportunity for the UK’s future dentists. We hope that by attending our events, students will acquire that extra competitive edge when applying for work opportunities and the like in the future.
After seven hugely successful research conferences held in Spring 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, through various other local events, the society has firmly embedded itself into the dental undergraduate student life. With the student attendance at our events, it is clear that there is a demand for academic events.
The student society is supported by the Manchester University Division of Dentistry. Professors Anne-Marie Glenny, Tanya Walsh and Helen Worthington among other staff have supported the society to allow the previous conferences to be truly exceptional and of a very high calibre. We are very grateful for the support provided and we hope this is reflected in the high standard of events which we set to deliver.
Manchester has an international reputation for research, education, and innovation – not only in dentistry but across all academic fields. The research undertaken at Manchester is world-leading and aspires to have significant societal impact by improving oral health, reducing inequalities, and improving the delivery of dental services and clinical care. Thus, it is only fitting that the first dental student research society was founded in Manchester.
Manchester achieves this through excellent facilities and having the best researchers in the country, if not globally. Manchester Dental School is also home to the Cochrane Oral Health Group (COHG), which publishes summaries of the best quality research available. The research produced by the COHG is recognised as the highest standard of evidence-based oral healthcare decision-making resources and is used to implement policies which affect our delivery and quality of care. Because of this high-quality research, many other cities across the globe have made links with Manchester to collaborate in producing better research protocols.
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