Scottish Parliament

I've been taking part in the Crucible programme at my University, which myself and a group of 'early career' researchers (we range from 0-15 years of postdoctoral experience so not really that 'early' for me or some others!). We've had media training, training on research impact, networking and using social media, etc, to disseminate our work. The last day was a visit to Scottish Parliament. We met with SNPs who have special interests in health and who offered advice about how to go about building links with Parliament to make our research policy relevant/ use our findings to influence decision making. We also sat in on First Minister's Questions, which was the last before the recess. It was a lively one! There had been a cabinet reshuffle so lots of new SMPs were sworn in, including Michael Russell who I believe is a fellow blipper. There had also been something of a scandal with one Minister being asked to vacate, because of the views she had expressed in a blog (highly discriminatory). A few questions that were also highly relevant to some of our research, so most interesting. These are the Crucibleers in the main chamber. The blonde woman smiling is Gillian who used to work at SP but is now our engagement officer.