Edinburgh Imaging

23 Feb 22. Duncan Martin leaves Edinburgh Imaging

At the end of February, after 14 years of service, Duncan Martin will leave Edinburgh Imaging and the University of Edinburgh.

Duncan Martin
Duncan Martin

Duncan joined the University of Edinburgh in 2008. His original appointment was as the Scientific Business Manager of the Scottish Funding Council Brain Imaging Research Centre (SBIRC), on the University’s Western General Hospital campus. 

Duncan’s initial focus was to establish what the full costs were, of delivering MR scanning for medical research. Once he established these costs, Duncan developed a business model, which would enable the imaging centre to recover full MR scanning costs. This in turn allowed the creation of a discrete imaging business entity, operating within the wider University organisational structure. 

Critical to the success of imaging business development, was visibility: first, SBIRC was renamed the Brain Research Imaging Centre (BRIC). The renaming aligned the facility’s name with its sister facility CRIC (Clinical Research Imaging Centre), on the Little France campus (now BioQuarter), which had been established in 2009.

Second, the new branding was incorporated into an updated website, and third, a specific position in the University’s organisational hierarchy was secured.  Thus, new research project activity and commercial imaging activity were amplified, while at the same time the University increasingly recognised the importance of the imaging business.  

In 2013, with funding support from both the University of Edinburgh and BRIC, Duncan graduated with an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Business School, which he completed while developing BRIC as an operational business entity.  At the same time, senior University management asked that BRIC and CRIC integrate their activities to augment imaging projects across the University and to realise natural operational efficiencies. A key action was to appoint Duncan to the University role of Business Manager for Imaging: Duncan became operationally responsibility for both BRIC and CRIC.

The next action was to create a single imaging entity across all University campuses: Edinburgh Imaging was born. Duncan then spent the next 3 years streamlining processes and organisational structures.

As Edinburgh Imaging evolved, business development meant that the supported research portfolio expanded, along with new capabilities. Duncan became the central point-of-contact with NHS Lothian management teams and National Services Scotland (NSS). Through Duncan’s integrative activity, Edinburgh Imaging became a collaborative partner with the NHS, delivering world class imaging outputs to meet research and diagnostic needs.

In 2016, Edinburgh Imaging completed two significant upgrade projects: Scotland’s only Positron Emission Tomography – Magnetic Resonance (PET-MR) device was installed into the newly renamed Edinburgh Imaging Facility QMRI (formally CRIC), housed in the University’s Queen’s Medical Research Institute (QMRI) building; and a 3T neuro-optimised MR scanner was installed into a new research space, the Edinburgh Imaging Facility RIE, embedded within the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh. Edinburgh Imaging was now operating in three distinct locations, offering a wide range of large-modality imaging services, while at the same time supporting lab-based and analytical capabilities.  

In 2018, the BRIC MR scanner (at this point renamed to the Edinburgh Imaging Facility WGH) retired from service and the imaging facility handed over to the NHS.  This scanner had completed around 30,000 brain scans in almost 20 years of operation. Edinburgh Imaging consolidated to the BioQuarter campus of the University.

In 2020, the world changed due to Covid. So did Edinburgh Imaging. Many research projects had to stop. Duncan and the Edinburgh Imaging teams worked closely with NHS colleagues to enable the NHS to make best use of available Edinburgh Imaging scanning capacity. In addition to carrying out high-volume NHS work, the Edinburgh Imaging / NHS collaboration developed new, specialist NHS clinical imaging services, which depend on the cutting-edge Edinburgh Imaging research equipment and experienced staff.

 

Duncan summarises his time working at the University of Edinburgh.

“The last 14 years have been an amazing opportunity to develop and utilise business development and operational management skills, and to apply them to create a world class Edinburgh Imaging entity, capable of meeting the research and diagnostic needs of any potential partner.”

 

Duncan is moving to the private sector to work as the Business Development Manager for EnteroBiotix, a leading microbiome therapeutics company.

We would like to thank Duncan for his hard work over the years, helping us to navigate and shape Edinburgh Imaging to where it is today. We wish him all the best in his new role!

 

 

 

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At the end of February, after 14 years of service, Duncan Martin will leave Edinburgh Imaging and the University of Edinburgh.

@EdinUniMedicine @EdinUniBrainSci @EdinUniCVS @SINAPSECENTRE @EdinburghBQ @EdinburghCRF @EdinInnovations