Welsh Crucible promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation
A new initiative will bring together bright thinkers from different academic disciplines and industries across Wales to find solutions to some of today’s complex challenges.
The newly launched Welsh Crucible is a programme of personal, professional and leadership development for 30 promising research leaders of the future who are building their careers in Wales.
The programme is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales with involvement from across the St David’s Day group of higher education institutions. It is led by Cardiff University in partnership with Swansea University, Bangor University, Aberystwyth University and the University of Glamorgan.
Talented early to mid-career researchers employed by St David’s Day partner universities or by Welsh SMEs are invited to apply to participate in four designated research areas prioritized by the Welsh Assembly. These include the emerging Digital Economy; tackling climate change in the Low Carbon Economy; Health and Biosciences as well as Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing.
Professor Peter Halligan Dean of Strategic Futures and Interdisciplinary Studies, Cardiff University said: “This scheme which is the first in Wales will enable talented researchers from a variety of disciplines to come together to explore and expand their creative capacity and problem-solving potential in ways they may never have considered before.
“Our aim is to establish a network of talented individuals who are Wales’s research leaders of the future and are more open to engagement in knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary research because of their Welsh Crucible experience."
Professor Ian Cluckie, Swansea University Pro-Vice Chancellor (Science and Engineering) said: “Swansea University is totally supportive of the Welsh Crucible programme and looks forward to being involved in the up and coming workshops to develop our Early Career Researchers.
“The University prides itself on developing a positive research culture and environment. Paramount to these developments are our Early Career Researchers. We currently have over 400 in a diverse range of disciplines covering the STEM and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences areas.
“The development of this cohort will without doubt build our research capacity in the future to respond to many of the challenges we face in the 21st century. Swansea has been extremely successful in the past with developing 11 Research Council UK Fellows, which were recognised as rising stars in their early careers in a variety of disciplines including nanohealth, physics, mathematics and engineering.”
Participants of the Welsh Crucible will attend three intensive workshops comprising guest speakers, seminars, skills sessions, tours and informal discussions.
The Welsh Crucible is based on the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts’ (NESTA) UK ‘Crucible’ development programme.
Visit http://www.welshcrucible.org.uk/ for further information.
