- All shortlisted lead authors and co-authors will receive a certificate for their portfolio
- One winner and one highly commended entry will be announced in each category and the lead author will be showcased on our dedicated webpage
- The lead author of the winning and highly commended entries from each category will receive a free virtual delegate place at Medicine taking place the following year.
- Shortlisted abstracts 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 virtual nature of this national competition allows you to participate wherever you are located in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales.
The aim of the initiative is to celebrate the achievements of medical students, foundation doctors and resident doctors and, if shortlisted, enables professional development of presentation, leadership and public speaking skills - all on a virtual platform.
Meet the 2026 competition winners
We're pleased to showcase the winners and highly commended lead authors who presented at our 2026 Virtual poster competition panels, to our judging panel of senior physicians.
If you missed out on this year's competition, you can now register your interest for our 2027 to receive priority notice of when the competition opens again for submissions, which is expected to be in the Spring.
Why apply?
Key stages of this national competition
The 2027 competition will open for applications in Spring 2027 [ date to be confirmed shortly]. Register your interest for 2027 here to receive priority notice.
Stage 1: Submission – resident doctors are invited to submit a 500-word abstract about your project. Applications can be made in groups, but you must identify a lead author. The lead author must submit the application and will need to be an RCP subscribing member. Find out if you're eligible here.
Stage 2: Shortlisting – all submitted abstracts will be verified to check that the lead author is eligible to apply. If applications are not eligible, they will be rejected. Only verified applications that meet the eligibility criteria will be reviewed by senior physicians and shortlisted applicants will be asked to prepare a poster to present at one of four competition panels.
Stage 3: Online competition – lead authors of shortlisted abstracts will be asked to transform their abstract into a one slide PowerPoint poster and will be invited to present their poster to a judging panel on a virtual meeting (via Microsoft Teams). A judging panel from across the UK regions will join us live to listen to your presentation. They will each score you on your poster on design, oral presentation and the answers given to their questions. All shortlisted authors ( including co-authors) will be invited to attend a panel to support their peers.
Read the eligibility criteria'I am truly grateful to be awarded a commendation for my poster presentation! The RCP virtual competition was fantastically organised, and I urge all resident doctors to apply to practice presenting their unique pieces of educational work!'
Dr Dev Hamal, IMT2 Trainee, Princess Royal University Hospital
Education, training and medical professionalism: winner of the Highly commended award
Contact us
The RCP virtual poster competition is run and delivered by the RCP Regional team, for more information, contact PosterCompetition@rcp.ac.uk