Organisers of Scotland’s first conference focused on the role of the armed forces have hailed it as a success, following its conclusion.

Held between 22 and 28 August, to coincide with Edinburgh's festival season, ‘Identity, Purpose and Belonging: The First Scottish International Conference on Armed Forces in Society’, gave hundreds of attendees the chance to learn more about the emerging research and thinking on support for service personnel, veterans, and their families.

Commenting on the idea for hosting an international conference of this kind, key event convener, Professor Gerri Matthews-Smith, of Edinburgh Napier’s Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement said:

“I have been so enthused by the activity and the buzz that's been around here for the last few days. It's just been wonderful. The words ‘identity’, ‘purpose’ and ‘belonging’ kept coming up within our research. The idea of this conference was really to address these three key things.”

The conference addressed several broad themes relating to armed forces research and practice, such as history, the transition between military and civilian life, family, education, wellbeing, and mental health.

Comments from guest speakers include:

 Professor Ben Wadham of the Open Door: Improving the Wellbeing of Veterans, Public Safety Personnel and their Families research initiative at Flinders University said:

“We often think that trauma is an effect of deployment, but it is also an effect of the way in which the institution manages and treats veterans. We created a new way of thinking about this, which has been really effective in Australia, and I hope it gets picked up across our partners that we've met through this conference.

"The facilities at this conference have been great, and the conference has been really well organised. It's overall been a fantastic experience.” 

Professor Suzette Bremault-Phillips of Heroes in Mind, Advocacy & Research Consortium, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta said:

“I was asked if I could speak about education - to leverage education, post-secondary education, for the benefit of those who are serving. We're dealing with different cultures between our student population and our military and veteran population - different values, orientations - those kinds of things.

“We're looking at how we build networks of post-secondary institutions, networks across the country, and then networks country, to country, to country. Having an international conference of this nature is really beautiful, enabling us to talk and cross-pollinate ideas and share ideas between those who are serving from different areas, those who are veterans with lived experience.”

Dr Alisha Ali, Advocacy & Community-Based Trauma Studies, Department of Applied Psychology at New York University said:

“One of the beautiful things about this conference is it combines science; it combines the arts; and it also brings together people who work with veterans in the sort-of service provision area, but also in the research area so that we can be in dialogue with each other. It's a vision for what could become, so I'm hoping that this is only the first of many such conferences.”

As well as international guest speakers, the conference was also attended by academic researchers, including PhD researcher from Edinburgh Napier University, Ruthie Stewart who added:

“By having attended this conference, my own research will be more relevant because I've met with stakeholders, I've made a lot of networking contacts, which is important to reach the sample  for my study.”

The events were centred around Edinburgh Napier University’s Craiglockhart campus, which fittingly has strong links to the armed forces. Known as Craiglockhart War Hospital during the First World War, it became famous as the place where poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen first met.

Adding her thoughts on the conference, Dr Linda Irvine Fitzpatrick of Thrive said:

“The venue has been absolutely perfect because there's such history here, with Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. A lot of the innovations that we're talking about now were actually innovated in this building. We will continue to talk, we'll continue to collaborate, we'll continue to think about how we can work together.”

Among the highlights was the launch of a collection of poetry by former Army medic Major General Tim Hodgetts, drawing on experiences from his deployments to Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Speaking to BFBS Forces News, he said:

“I have been inspired by poets of the past, particularly World War One poets. It's absolutely fabulous to be launching a book at Craiglockhart, which is the site of the World War One shell shock hospital where Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves met here as patients."

Edinburgh Napier’s Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement was set up in 2020 with an aim of creating collaborative community of armed forces research and evidence which informs military policy and practice, alongside Scottish Armed Forces Evidence and Research (SAFE&R).

The conference was sponsored by the Veterans’ Foundation, which also funded the creation and continued development of SAFE&R.

Learn more about the Centre’s work in helping veteran transition to civilian life here >