Researchers offer perspectives on the impact of different life events on the course of their research and offer reflections on how they maintained projects through challenging times or restored their passion for research after the dust had settled. Videos recordings are from the 2024 Researcher Realities event. Dr Linus Schumacher, Chancellor’s Fellow, Reader, Centre for Regenerative Medicine / Centre for Engineering Biology Dr Linus Schumacher leads a group of mathematical modellers and computational biologists at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh. He moved to Edinburgh as a Chancellor’s Fellow (tenure track) in 2018. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, where he also obtained my DPhil (PhD). For his undergraduate degree he read Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge. Dr Noor Gammoh, Chancellor’s Fellow, Reader, MRC Institute of Genetics & Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh Dr Noor Gammoh is a Reader based at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer. Noor conducted her doctorate training at the laboratory of Dr Lawrence Banks, Trieste – Italy, where she studied viral oncogenes. In 2009, Noor moved to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York for her postodoctoral training before moving to the University of Edinburgh as a Chancellor’s fellow in 2014 to establish her independent research group. Noor’s lab is interested in investigating cancer cell survival pathways and has been awarded a Cancer Research UK Career Development Fellowship to support her studies on brain tumours. Professor Ewa Luger, Chair of Human-Data Interaction, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh Professor Ewa Luger is co-director of the Institute of Design Informatics and co-Director of AHRC’s Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme. She works closely with policy-makers and industry and is a member of the DCMS college of experts. Previously a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, Researcher at Microsoft, Fellow of Corpus Christi College (University of Cambridge), and consultant ethicist for Microsoft Research (2016-2020). She builds upon 15 years as a digital exclusion/skills expert and practitioner (NIACE, 1999-2014) where she worked with marginalised communities. Ewa holds a BA (Hons) in International Relations & Politics, an MA in International Relations, and a PhD in Computer Science. BRAID UK BRAID is a 3-year national research programme funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), led by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with the Ada Lovelace Institute. This article was published on 2024-07-18