Would You Put a Punt on a 5,000-to-1 Outsider?

Dear Reader,

It is one the most exciting sports stories of all time—Leicester City Football Club won the English Premier League title. For those of you outside England, you may question this statement. But the background to this is rather remarkable: Leicester started the season having just missed relegation and as 5,000-to-1 outsiders to win the Premier League title. It was a sports journey that captured the attention of many of us, even those not normally football fans. To go from “zero to hero” was a truly remarkable triumph, and you were hard pushed to find anyone who grudged them the title; how can you not love the rise of the underdogs? This sporting fairy tale has brought with it much analysis, in particular was the question “can money buy success?” Clearly not; indeed, there are several football players that played against Leicester who were each worth more than the entire Leicester team.

So what can we learn from Leicester? Well, certainly it is about working with the right people and building the team. A great scientific network can help us all develop and build our research and the impact our research can have. However, it is also about finding our supporters; we might not have the luxury of a football stadium full of passionate football fans cheering us on (and indeed that could get a little distracting), but we can work with people who motivate and challenge us to push to the next level of our research. Our support network can also help us identify and play to our strengths. It is also important we maintain and build our skills and knowledge. The good news is that all of this is what CRS is here for. Through our research community and network fostered by CRS we get the opportunity to broaden and strengthen our research networks. Indeed, within this issue of our newsletter we see reports from our local chapters and updates from a range of researchers in our field. So I hope you enjoy both this story of the underdogs and all the exciting science and news we bring you in this newsletter, and I hope you are getting ready for our meeting in Seattle.

Best regards, Yvonne