The Faculty of Life Sciences attracts students throughout the world by promoting excellence in research. However, undergraduate students rarely attend seminars delivered outside of their timetabled lectures, due in part to the often complex nature of the material covered, and therefore miss out on a valuable resource. The intended outcomes of this project were for students to develop an awareness of cutting-edge research in the biological sciences and a broader understanding and knowledge of current issues in biology. It is hoped that this might encourage them to attend seminars in the future, enhance their skills of enquiry and thus better prepare them for Final Level projects and examinations. Seminars were recorded, with the speakers’ consent, following a pilot study of the Faculty’s 2007 Annual Lecture delivered by Professor Sir John Sulston (entitled ‘Genetic Equity and Global Medicine – What is Science for anyway?’). This lecture addressed issues which spanned several disciplines in Life Sciences, and included some contentious material which was ideal for debates. Key themes were identified and questions constructed to help students to explore these themes. Relevant video clips (2-5 minutes in length) from the original recording were inserted into a Powerpoint presentation along with the associated questions. Activities were formulated from the questions to encourage students to undertake research in greater depth and then present their findings in an appropriate and interesting way, such as a poster, structured debate or role play activity. The activities were designed to be run over three tutorial sessions, each tutorial group consisting of six to eight Level 1 or 2 students. In the first fifty minute session, tutors and/or students chose an activity and studied the relevant video clips. Students were given the chance to discuss the content and ask questions, and they then formulated learning objectives in order to structure their research. The second tutorial was used to discuss and integrate the material gathered from individual research, revisit the recorded material if necessary and then start preparing for a group activity or presentation in the final tutorial. Tutors received a CD and notes to guide students in finding helpful resources. Evaluation of the project was through structured questionnaires distributed to both students and tutors. Feedback was encouraging; students enjoyed the activities, felt that their knowledge of bioscience research was enhanced, and stated that they would be more likely to attend future seminars. Tutors found the activities engaged students and said that they would use them again. Further recorded seminars are now being edited with the generation of corresponding tutorial activities. The main barriers to progress have resulted from difficulties in obtaining consent from speakers when unpublished data or ‘sensitive’ information, such as details of animal experimentation or human case studies, was presented in the seminar. This problem has been overcome in the short-term by showcasing in-house seminars, and restricting distribution to the Faculty intranet.