Dr Victoria Edwards Attends reception at Buckingham Palace

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Victoria and the Queen

Dr Victoria Edwards, Associate Professor and Director of Rural Programmes in the School of Real Estate & Planning, attended a reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by Her Majesty The Queen, to mark the 50th anniversary of The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

Since 1965, over 5,000 British citizens have been awarded Churchill Fellowships, from over 100,000 applicants, to travel overseas to study areas of topical and personal interest. The knowledge and innovative ideas they bring back are shared, for the benefit of their profession, their community, and, in a lot of cases, the nation. For many people, a Churchill Fellowship proves transformational, and they go on to achieve great things - effecting positive change within society.

Victoria went on her Fellowship in 1991 to the United States of America to investigate nature conservation on private land, and specifically how to make it economically viable.  Her fellowship resulted in a book published by Cambridge University Press (Dealing in Diversity: America's market for nature conservation). Since then Victoria has been involved in many environmental initiatives, including serving as a Forestry Commissioner and acting as lead board member for the Countryside Agency in the designation of the New Forest as a National Park.

Victoria now serves on the Council of The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and chairs the interviews for new environmental fellowships.  She would be happy to speak to anyone interested in applying for a Churchill Fellowship. Victoria said, "They offer a wonderful opportunity to research an area of interest overseas without imposing the usual constraints of research grants. In that respect, the freedom they offer engenders a creativity of approach sometimes denied to academics, particularly in the scoping stages of a project."