Internship Highlight: Posters in Parliament Exhibition
15 July 2026
Diogo Godoi shares how his On-campus Internship experience was nominated further, at the Posters in Parliament exhibition.
For our 2025 summer cohort, students were given the exciting opportunity to be nominated for the Posters in Parliament exhibition, enabling them to showcase their work to a wider, national audience and gain valuable experience presenting in a professional setting.
In the case study below, intern Diogo Godoi reflects on his experience within the scheme, offering insight into the opportunities it created and the lasting impact it has had on his development.
Diogo’s journey highlights how an internship can act as a springboard for academic and professional growth, building confidence, developing key skills, expanding networks, and opening doors to opportunities beyond the initial placement.
Diogo Godoi
Last summer, I had the privilege of conducting an internship at Brain and Genomics Hub, a research group investigating severe mental illnesses at Cardiff University.
During the internship, I had the opportunity of working face-to-face with patients and supporting the running of a large scale study integrating genomics, neuroimaging, cognitive and behavioural data to better understand the nature and mechanisms of psychotic disorders. The experience gave me the opportunity to learn so much about these conditions, as well as how world-leading research is conducted in practice. I also had to develop both my clinical and quantitative skills, and the time spent in this project was responsible for deepening my passion for research and encouraging me to pursue it in the future.
I also had the chance of leading a research project investigating factors associated with greater severity of psychotic symptoms. Our findings demonstrated that some of the common psychiatric risk factors were linked to higher symptom severity, and that some variables had distinct associations with different symptoms, highlighting the complexity of these conditions.
In November, I was able to present these results in the form of a poster at the On Campus Internships exhibition in Cardiff and give a short talk on the project to fellow students and academics. The poster was then selected to be presented at the Posters in Parliament exhibition in the UK Parliament. It was an absolutely amazing experience, and it was great to share our research with MPs and policy makers at the highest levels of decision-making.
More recently, I also had the privilege to present this project at the European Congress of Psychiatry 2026 in Prague, where I was able to share our research with clinicians and researchers from around the world. It was amazing to learn from all the lectures and see how research and clinical practice are together, advancing our knowledge and treatment of mental illnesses. Presenting this work in such distinct settings was a very rewarding experience and highlighted to me the importance of effectively communicating scientific research to a wide variety of audiences: From specialists, to the general public.
I would like to thank all the whole Brain and Genomics Hub team: Lowri Evans, Blessing Omoregbee, Fevin Saji, Soumita Ramesh, Georgia Dash, for making me feel so welcome and teaching me so much in such a short time. I would also like to thank the Brain and Genomics Hub Research Leads: James Walters and Neil Harrison for this opportunity and their guidance. I would finally like to thank my incredible supervisors: Sophie Legge and Carolyn McNabb for their invaluable mentorship, teaching, and for providing me with this transformative experience.
View photos from the Posters in Parliament event.
On-campus Internship scheme
Find out more about the scheme – an undergraduates chance to participate in a paid summer placement in the university research and learning and teaching environment.