Physiology is often described as the ‘science of life’, which is a good headline, but without further definition is perhaps too simplistic an explanation of the complexity, fascination and importance of physiology. Since 2021’s iteration of Physiology Friday, we have tasked our physiology and biomedical undergraduate students with gathering perspectives on what physiology is, and what physiologists do, through recorded interviews with peers and academic staff across several UK universities. These are all are hosted on an open access e-repository⁽¹⁾. The intentions of these activities are to (i) gather current views of physiology from academic researchers and teachers and (ii) increase public awareness of the importance of physiology as a scientific discipline – for teaching and learning; for the fundamental understanding of all aspects of human biology; for the improved treatment and diagnoses of diseases; and for informing public health policies.

Following success of voluntary involvement from two BSc Physiological Sciences students from Newcastle University across Physiology Friday in 2021 and 2022, we secured £1500 funding from Newcastle University’s Jobs on Campus to recruit two student interns to (i) develop our e-repository further by conducting further interviews with physiology-related staff and students within and outside of Newcastle; (ii) transcribe and upload existing and new interviews and related content to the repository; (iii) thematically analyse such content to identify key themes; and (iv) investigate historical comments on the role and purpose of physiological sciences.

We are currently at stages (i) and (ii) with 23 recordings to date of staff (N=17) and student (N=6) interviewees from 6 institutions across the UK. A total of 293.8 minutes’ worth of footage has been recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis, the results of which will be presented. Furthermore, the project has presented an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their communication, organisational and teamworking skills, while developing their global citizenship, broadening their physiological network and enhancing their understanding of physiology as a discipline, of help for their future academic studies and career decisions.