On Wednesday 21st May we had the privilege of spending a day with the 5 Military Intelligence Battalion at the Army Reserve Centre in Edinburgh. After a warm welcome, we heard first-hand how reservists balance civilian careers with reserve duties, and how in many cases these complement each other. We then rotated through three hands-on stations: learning about and wearing standard-issue military equipment; and two team-building tasks designed to test our communication and reasoning skills through different simulated scenarios. This was also a great opportunity to meet with postgraduate students from other programmes working on cutting-edge technology here at Edinburgh.

In conjunction with the practical activities, we received concise, eye-opening briefings on the battalion’s role and how it dovetails with our research interests. Of particular relevance was the Specialist Group Military Intelligence (SGMI) unit, whose members are internationally recognised subject-matter experts. They provide specialist regional, thematic, and technical intelligence for the Army. Hearing how different subject matter experts come together to provide their own expertise to the Army helped picture our own doctoral work feeding into, and perhaps one day serving within, teams like SGMI.

We would like to extend our thanks to the Officer Commanding and Maj (retd) De Montes for organising this activity day and to the reservists at the 5 MI Battalion for hosting us and telling us about their work.