Scottish Crucible is the premier research leadership and development programme for Scotland’s research leaders of the future.

Scottish Crucible has been established as a cooperation between the Scottish Funding Council, Royal Society of Edinburgh and partner Research Institutions. Built on the pillars of collaboration, interdisciplinarity, innovation and leadership, Scottish Crucible engages with business, industry, media, policy and the public sector.  It has created since 2009 an Alumni Network of Scotland’s most able early career researchers from all academic disciplines, now representing 29 HEIs, Research Institutes and SMEs. Outcomes of the programme include innovative projects that build interdisciplinary and inter-institutional relationships addressing present-day economic, social, health and environmental issues.

Scottish Crucible inspires greater creativity and innovation via collaboration and cooperation between highly accomplished and skilled individuals with diverse backgrounds and from a broad range of Scottish organisations. It offers the highest quality personal development experience for competitively-selected ‘research leaders of the future’ from academia, research institutes and business.  The Scottish Crucible Alumni Network has become a valuable asset contributing to Scotland’s international research and knowledge exchange competitiveness and emphasising social and economic progress. An annual “Scottish Crucible Forum” now takes place as a means of stimulating and refreshing the involvement of the Alumni Network while facilitating further engagement with key Scottish organisations as beneficiaries of the Scottish Crucible programme.

In 2018, Scottish Crucible was 10 years old.  To mark this anniversary, our Alumni were invited to reflect on the impact their involvement in Scottish Crucible has had on their research and careers to date.  Visit the Alumni Reflections to read about Scottish Crucible from the perspective of its participants.