2015 Crucible

Two researchers from Heriot-Watt have taken part in Scottish Crucible 2015, the national leadership and development programme for ‘research leaders of the future’. Dr Anne Bernassau and Dr Erik Gauger, both from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, spent six days over the last three months undertaking Scottish Crucible, a programme designed to foster interdisciplinarity and collaboration in research and innovation, for which acceptance is highly competitive across Scottish universities and research institutions.

Scottish Crucible aims to empower researchers through innovation, creativity and collaboration. It brings together researchers from all academic disciplines, and at the end of the programme the researchers are invited to submit applications for small amounts of seed-funding for collaborative research projects.

Throughout the programme, participants have engaged with a wide range of innovators, parliamentarians, media professionals and senior academics on their experiences of public engagement, commercialisation, research funding, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the challenges and opportunities of such activity for the academic community.

Dr Gauger said of his experience, “It has really helped me to communicate better with people outside my own discipline, as well as leading to several exciting ideas for interdisciplinary collaborations ranging from concepts for outreach to cutting edge quantum simulations.”

Some of the experiences shared by the 2015 cohort can be read about at Scottish Crucible 2015.