An award-winning documentary producer, an international music industry professional, the editor of Puppetry International, and a sport and exercise psychologist are among the 29 researchers chosen for this year’s GW4 Crucible programme.
Researchers from across the GW4 Alliance (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter universities) have been selected to take part in the GW4 Crucible 2025 programme, which provides hands-on training and activities to develop collaborative research leaders of the future.
The theme for GW4 Crucible 2025 is ‘Creative Societies and Cultures, Cultural and Public Good?’. The topic supports one of GW4’s strategic priority research areas focusing on creative communities to foster sociocultural growth.
This year’s 29 successful researchers have a wide range of research interests and expertise encompassing creativity in its broadest sense, including engineering, technology, heritage and storytelling, journalism, health and wellbeing, economics, cultural politics, environment, neurodiversity, education, robotics and AI.
GW4 Crucible provides a unique opportunity for researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines to come together to generate innovative, multifaceted responses which, this year, will focus on creativity’s place and shape in our society, culture and economy.
Participants will take part in a hybrid programme consisting of two in-person residential labs and four online masterclasses with expert speakers. They will benefit from career development, networking opportunities, and enhanced visibility with sector leaders. There is also an opportunity to compete for seed funding to kick start collaborative interdisciplinary project ideas that have emerged during their participation in the programme.
GW4 Director, Dr Joanna Jenkinson MBE, said: “It is fantastic to see the wide-ranging breadth and depth of expertise across this year’s cohort. The GW4 Crucible programme has a track-record of providing transformational experiences by bringing together early career researchers from across radically different disciplines to develop new approaches to societal and global challenges. It enhances the careers of our future research leaders, provides new opportunities and develops collaboration and leadership skills.”
“I would like to welcome our new cohort and look forward to meeting them and getting to know them over the coming months. I am very excited to hear their innovative ideas and see how their projects and they themselves develop throughout the programme.”
Meet the successful researchers taking part in Crucible 2025 and follow programme updates on GW4 LinkedIn.
