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Participants in the Scottish Funding Council’s Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme have had a chance to share their experiences and celebrate their achievements in a special day of events held in Edinburgh.
Under the SFC scheme, administered by nine research consortia based across Scottish universities, Scottish and European-based post-graduate and early career researchers undertook exchanges between Scotland and 21 European countries. The participants recorded the results of their exchanges in reports, blogs and presentations. As part of the day of events they were also invited to produce additional showcase material.
The day began at the John McIntyre Conference Centre with a programme of speeches and masterclasses which included a keynote address from Education Minister, Jamie Hepburn. After a change of venue to the National Museum of Scotland, the delegates reconvened for an evening of special awards. Amongst the accolades were prizes for research exchanges in the fields of climate change, health and culture.
Amongst the winners was Tobias Mensak from the Bergische University, Wuppertal in Germany who won the Climate, Energy and Mobility category. Tobias undertook his exchange through the ScotCHEM research pool. Other winners were from Saltire Emerging Researcher exchange programmes run by graduate schools and research pools from across Scotland. Reflecting the academic scope of the exchanges, their projects included cultural collaboration, the impacts of ocean warming, drug discovery and electric motor design.
The winner of the People’s Choice award was Dr Hailey Austin whose placement was in the Department of Computer and Systems Science at Stockholm University. Hailey’s project explored Stockholm’s unique female-led videogame and comics culture.
Speaking at the event, SFC Chair, Mike Cantlay, said:
“Internationally, research is a highly competitive environment, and we need to create even stronger links between our universities here in Scotland and universities elsewhere in the world. This is what the Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme set out to do, and it has achieved it brilliantly.
“I would like to congratulate all the participants for their willingness to adventure out and make academic and personal connections that will help cement the international research collaborations of the future.”
The SFC Emerging Researcher Scheme is part of a wider Scottish Government programme to maintain and strengthen Scottish-European research collaboration.
The scheme has already led to the establishment of formal partnerships and new opportunities such as the SULSA fund that is now catalysing new research collaborations between Scotland and the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany.
