Four USW academics selected for Welsh Crucible research programme

Left to right: Dr Sarah Wallace; Dr Helen Jones; Dr Tracie McKinney; Dr Jenny Maher

Congratulations to Dr Sarah Wallace, Dr Helen Jones, Dr Tracie McKinney and Associate Professor Jenny Maher on being selected for this year's Welsh Crucible.

Welsh Crucible is an award-winning programme of personal, professional and leadership development for the future research leaders of Wales.

Funded by a consortium of Welsh higher education institutions and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), Welsh Crucible brings together 30 researchers each year in order to explore how they can work together to tackle the current research challenges facing Wales.

Each year, 30 researchers from across Wales are selected to participate in a series of residential workshops or ‘skills labs’, where they explore how they can benefit from working with researchers in other disciplines, how their research can have greater impact, and how they can build international research careers in Wales.

Professor Martin Steggall, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), said: "Given USW's commitment to supporting high quality, impactful research we are very pleased to congratulate Helen, Jenny, Sarah, and Tracie on earning their places among the top 30 applications that were submitted this year to the Welsh Crucible programme.”

“On behalf of USW, I would like to wish them every success throughout the programme and beyond. We hope that they enjoy becoming a part of the Welsh Crucible alumni and that their participation will stand them in good stead to thrive as they continue their careers as researchers."

Dr Sarah Wallace is a senior research fellow at Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care (WIHSC) and co-founder of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Research Network Wales. Her research interests span across health and social care, particularly domestic violence and abuse, and research with vulnerable and/or marginalised individuals and groups/communities.

Dr Helen Jones is a research fellow in Criminology. Prior to this, she worked for Leicestershire Police, reviewing undetected homicides, stranger rapes and long-term missing persons. Her research interests include homicide, major crime investigation and policing, with a focus on qualitative research methods.

Dr Tracie McKinney is a biological anthropologist with expertise in nonhuman primate responses to anthropogenic disturbance. Tracie is particularly interested in how wild primates deal with human disturbance, including habitat alteration, ecotourism, provisioning, and crop-raiding.

Dr Jenny Maher works in the fields of criminology and criminal justice, with contributions to knowledge in youth violence and victimisation, animal abuse and environmental crimes.