Dr Katherine Duncan and Prof Lucas Richert – Scottish Crucible 2017

Chancellor’s Fellow and Lecturer in Drug Discovery

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Science, University of Strathclyde

https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/duncankatherinedr/ email: Katherine.Duncan@strath.ac.uk; Twitter: @kate_duncan

AND

George Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy

University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Pharmacy

https://apps.pharmacy.wisc.edu/sopdir/lucas_richert/index.php email: lucas.richert@wisc.edu; Twitter: @LucRichert

Both early career academics, Katherine Duncan (KRD) was one year into her Chancellor’s Fellowship, while Lucas Richert (LR) was one year into his Lectureship when they attended the Scottish Crucible in spring 2017.

Since finishing the Scottish Crucible programme in July, KRD (PI) and LR (Co-I) have been successful in obtaining funding through The 2017 Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (http://royalphil.org) grant scheme (deadline October). This grant titled ‘Marine Natural Products: Evolution and Adaption of a Discipline’ is a three year award commencing in April 2018. This research will lead to the publication of the first book on the history of marine natural products. It will communicate scientific breakthroughs to a wider audience, thus aiding greater public understanding and furthering research within this area. The co-authoring of this book, by both a scientist and a historian within Glasgow, fosters a dialogue across disciplines. KRD and LR plan to submit further applications (i.e. to the Wellcome Trust) for further interdisciplinary research collaboration.

We have both benefited as new academics (principal investigators) within Scotland from greatly expanded networks, both in terms of research, policy, industry and academia:

• KRD has been selected for Homeward Bound 2018 as one of 80 women scientists from across the world to go to Antarctica in February 2018 for a global, women in science leadership programme. KRD will be interviewed for the BBC early in January about her marine natural products drug discovery research, a result of the visibility training received at the Scottish Crucible workshops. KRD is currently on a 4-week interdisciplinary SULSA (Scottish University Life Science Alliance) funded early-career research fellowship to an internationally leading bioinformatics lab in the Netherlands, a multidisciplinary collaboration applied for after attending the Scottish Crucible.

• LR has been selected to participate in the AHRC’s Engaging with Government programme in March, 2018. Lessons learned during the Scottish Crucible will be valuable as he undertakes this further training in the policy-making process. LR has also used lessons from Scottish Crucible’s focus on public engagement to communicate about his research with readers of The Psychologist and British Journal of Psychiatry.