Today the members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded RIVAL network are meeting formally for the penultimate time at part 1 of RIVAL Event 4. As has been the case for so many professional activities since mid-March 2020, Dr Bruce Ryan, Rachel Salzano, Katherine Stephen and I are not hosting this event as originally envisaged. Rather than gathering face-to-face, at Edinburgh Napier University’s Sighthill campus for a full day on July 9th 2020, the RIVAL network members will be logging onto Teams for two half day meetings, the first of which is this afternoon, with the second on the morning of Friday 12th February.

The delay and the switch to the online platform are explained by the pandemic. Our decision to host the event over two half days was made on the basis of our recent experience of participation at online conferences: it’s simply too exhausting to sit at a screen at the same meeting for a full day.

The main focus of RIVAL Event 4 is a set of four outputs from the project. These are the delivery of a professional event in late 2021, an article for publication, a funding bid, and an evaluation report (as outlined in my introductory slides for today’s event). These outputs were determined by the network members themselves, who are working in teams to complete the work on each. It is anticipated that the first of the outputs to be made public will be the article: do look out for it in the professional press in the spring.