A bit of background
The University Indoor & Adaptive Rowing Series (UIARS) aims to empower, encourage, and support University rowing clubs to take on the planning and organising of an indoor rowing event, enabling the formation of a national series of competitions delivering the competitive indoor rowing experience for students and local community representatives.
The series kicks off on Saturday 1 November 2025 and will finish on Sunday 16 November 2025
The series encompasses the GBRT Senior & U23 Open Trial which is provisionally held for Saturday 1 November in Boston and students competing at the trial will be eligible to enter the series.
BUCS CATEGORY WINNERS TO WIN A FREE ENTRY TO BRIC
The top 3 medallists of each of the BUCS indoor rowing categories at each of the BUCS UIARS 2025 series events will be awarded a FREE entry to the British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) - the biggest indoor rowing event of the year! This year, BRIC will be hosted as part of FitFest™ at the NEC, Birmingham on 6 December 2025. https://www.britishrowing.org/events/events-calendar/bric/
British Rowing would love to welcome medallists to the centre stage of the national championships to come and take part alongside others from across the UK (and worldwide) and see if you can take a top spot or even break a British or World record.
Medallists will be emailed an exclusive discount code on to use at the checkout to get a free entry in either the 2,000m, 500m, or Adaptive race categories.
Entries for BRIC 2025 close at 12 noon on Tuesday 25 November 2025! So please do get your entry in before then once this email is sent.
If you can’t wait until then, BRIC 2025 is open now and you can submit an entry by clicking here.
General Event Information
Introducing 250m Sprint:
To keep up with the direction rowing is taking in the global calendar, BUCS has decided to implement a 250m sprint category into our UIARS championships. This is operating as a pilot event and therefore no BUCS points are attributed, however, entries for this category must still go through BUCS Play and medals can still be won.
Entry fees:
The Open and Women's Championship, Intermediate and Adaptive categories are all priced at £8.25.
The Open and Women's 250m sprint category is priced at £5.
Entry Dates:
Each host has a different closing date, this will be the week of the event so please check the relevant hosts tab to find out more information.
BUCS Points:
BUCS points are available for all championship categories excluding the 250m sprint.
Entry Process:
To apply for the competition all eligible competitors must follow these steps:
- Competitor to apply to the event on BUCS Play (Instructions on how to do this can be found here)
- Institution administrator approves entry (Instructions on how to do this can be found here)
- BUCS approves/denies entry into competition and publishes confirmed entry list
Any data will be handled in accordance with BUCS Privacy Policy
By participating in this event you agree to adhere to BUCS General Event Disclaimer
To check whether you are eligible to compete in BUCS competitions, please visit REG 4 Individual Eligibility.
Medals:
As this is a series event, BUCS will post medals out to successful institutions following the completion of the event, please liase with your IA to find out more information.
University of Birmingham
Date:
Saturday 8th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 4th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 6th November at 23:59
Venue:
Birmingham University, Sports & Fitness, Munrow Hall 1
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Cardiff
Date:
Sunday 9th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 4th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 6th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
Durham University
Date:
Saturday 15th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 11th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 13th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Edinburgh
Date:
Saturday 15th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 11th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 13th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Leeds
Date:
Sunday 9th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 4th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 6th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Liverpool
Date & Venue:
Saturday 1st November
University of Liverpool Sports and Fitness Centre
Bedford St N
Liverpool
L69 7ZN
There is a car park outside the sports centre and the sports centre is around a 15 minute walk from Liverpool Lime St station.
Entry Dates:
Entries Opening: Tuesday 7th October
Student Deadline: Tuesday 28th October at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 30th October at 23:59
BUCS run events:
- BUCS Championship Open weight Open / women - 2000m
- BUCS Championship lightweight Open / women - 2000m
- BUCS Open / Women Sprint - 250m
- BUCS Championship adaptive Open / women - 1000m
- BUCS Beginner Open / women - 1000m
Lightweight weights: Men 75.0kg, Women 61.5kg
This is as per BUCS regulations. Any rower who doesn’t make these weights will be allowed to compete in the open category. Weighing in will take place in the upstairs office at registration.
Cost to enter BUCS events:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
Schedule:
All timings are subject to change based on entries.
Drag factors are set according to BUCS regulations and will be set and checked before the race starts.
Races will be done in waves of 8 competitors.
All athletes must register for the events 30 minutes before event and in the waiting zone, 15 minutes prior to their race time.
Warm up / Cool down areas:
A warm up room will be open for 1 hour before first event as well as the main room. This will be equipped with ergs/ spin bikes.
Non BUCS events:
- Relays Open / Women / Mixed - 4x1000m
- Sprint Relays Open / Women / Mixed – 4x250m
- Sprint Open / Women - 100m
- Coach race - 750m
- Cox race - 500m
- Spectator race (non-rowers only) - 500m
All informal race entries are to be done at registration on the day. Entry fees will be £5 pp per race with the exceptions of the relays which will be £15 per team and sprint which is £2. Please pay as a club in one go at registration.
Relays – open to the 3 sub-categories: universities, clubs and non-rowers. Medals will be awarded to each of these subcategories within the 3 categories of men, women and mixed. Mixed relays will comprise of 2 men and 2 women. There is no senior/beginner division for relays, all abilities compete together. No other member is allowed to help with changeovers, this must be done amongst the 4 competitors.
Coaches – You are allowed to compete as both a coach and a rower. A coach will be classified as someone who coaches a team but does not compete for that team – captains do not classify.
Coxes – You are allowed to compete as both a cox and a rower. To classify as a cox, you must have cox points on British Rowing and have coxed/be entered to cox for this season.
Spectators – This is open to anyone who is not member of any rowing club. We will be teaching the basic erg pattern to anyone who wants to compete in the lunch break. Please bring friends/family with you to give it a go!
Additional Information:
There will be food and drink sold at the event.
Medals will be awarded for each category. Any winners of a BUCS race will be sent their medal after the series has finished
Male, female and gender neutral toilets / changing will be available.
Oxford Brookes University
Date:
Saturday 15th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 11th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 13th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Portsmouth
Date:
Sunday 16th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 11th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 13th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
Queens University Belfast
Date:
Saturday 15th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 11th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 13th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
University of Surrey
Date:
Sunday 9th November
Entries Opening:
Tuesday 7th October
Entries Closing:
Student Deadline: Tuesday 4th November at 23:59
Institution Administrator approval deadline: Thursday 6th November at 23:59
Venue: TBC
Timings: TBC
Cost to enter:
Championship, Int and Beginner races - £8.25
250m Sprint - £5
GB Trials
GB Rowing Team Senior and U23 Selection Trials - British Rowing
All BUCS entries must go through BUCS play following suit of our normal process. A £1.50 admin fee will be taken for each entry and this entry allows BUCS points to be allocated to those successful participants.
