By 
CRUK Career Development Fellow
MRC Human Genetics Unit and Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre
University of Edinburgh
e-mail: Duncan.sproul@igmm.ed.ac.uk
WWW: http://www.ed.ac.uk/mrc-human-genetics-unit/research/sproul-group
I took part in the Scottish Crucible in 2015. At that point, I had just been awarded money to start my own research laboratory at the MRC Human Genetics Unit and was applying for, but failing to get, research fellowships. Attending the Scottish Crucible Forum at the end of 2018 I was struck by how much my career has changed since I took part in the programme. Following the Crucible, I was awarded a 6-year, £1.3 million Career Development Fellowship by Cancer Research UK. I believe that the Scottish Crucible was instrumental to this success because the programme gave me confidence in my interdisciplinary work and lots of practise in summarising it for diverse audiences. The exposure to commercial and translational approaches gained during the Crucible is also a real strength of the programme. I now hope to put this experience into practise as my group has recently initiated our first collaboration with a commercial partner. I am certain that Scottish Crucible will be something that will stay with me as I continue through my career, wherever it takes me. Indeed, I left the 2018 forum with new ideas and contacts for interdisciplinary collaborations.
