Meet the Team: Louise

Hi, I’m Louise!

I’m Louise and I’m the Research Support Officer for Generation Scotland. I help support the team in a project management capacity alongside a variety of other tasks, such as coordinating our ethics applications (we’ve done many of these recently!) and finance. My main focus, at the moment, is devising a way of collecting samples from our new volunteers remotely, safely, and within all the many regulations.

One of our greatest achievements from 2020, alongside our Covid surveys, was to build a fantastic relationship with the East of Scotland REC – our ethics review board. They helped us build a sleek and efficient review process (13 applications in 12 months). One of these included our next Generation Scotland application. It will allow us not only to recruit new volunteers to Generation Scotland but also allow 12-15 year olds to join and consent to their own involvement. This is a huge achievement for the team and is really exciting within research.

I came to Generation Scotland through a number of different roles. They ranged from hospitality management, to nursing, and working in immuno-oncology. I obtained my BSc through the Open University and joined the University of Edinburgh in 2019. I love the fact I can bring a wealth of experience to my role here, and build upon previous learning and communication skills.

I don’t have an average work day. It’s often fast paced (especially in 2020) and is often unpredictable. That is part of what makes my job so great. I’m always problem solving and working within systems to try and achieve a common goal for Generation Scotland. It is part of the reason why I joined. I did ask about it at the interview and was promised to be kept busy – David certainly didn’t joke on that front!

When I’m not working I find lots of time to do some of my creative hobbies, including crocheting, cross stitching and painting. If there is a quiet spot in the house you’ll find me there reading something – I’m a bookworm! I also enjoy walking and travelling with my husband (and my camera!) – which I can’t wait to get back to when it’s allowed.