Richard Calvocoressi

Richard Calvocoressi is a Director and Senior Curator of the Gagosian Gallery in London. He was formerly Director of the Henry Moore Foundation (2007-15). From 1987 to 2007 he was Keeper, then Director, of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. From 1979 to 1987 he was a curator at the Tate Gallery, where he was responsible for building up the collections of pre- and postwar European art. He also organised major exhibitions of Jean Tinguely (1982) and Oskar Kokoschka (1986). In Scotland, he acquired important international collections of dada and surrealist art from the estates of Roland Penrose and Gabrielle Keiller and was instrumental in attracting the Anthony d’Offay gift (Artist Rooms) to Edinburgh and London. Richard Calvocoressi has published on various modern and contemporary artists, including Michael Andrews, Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Reg Butler, Lucian Freud, Anselm Kiefer, Yves Klein, Paul Klee, René Magritte, Lee Miller and Henry Moore. He is an Expert Member of the Comité Magritte and a Trustee of the Art Fund. In 2008, he was awarded a CBE for services to the arts, particularly in Scotland. His term will end on the 12th of November 2020.

Leslie Webster

Former Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europe, and senior curator of the early medieval collections at the British Museum, she specialises particularly in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking period, on which she publishes and lectures widely. Her latest book is Anglo-Saxon Art: a new History (2012). She is currently Honorary Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. She co-curated four major exhibitions on early medieval themes at the British Museum, and also co-ordinated a series of exhibitions in five major European museums, as part of the European Science Foundation’s Transformation of the Roman World AD 400-900 Project. She has served as a Trustee and committee member on many professional bodies, including the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Archaeological Institute, and the Society for Medieval Archaeology, where she served as President from 2007-10. Other advisory work has included membership of the former English Heritage Museums and Archives Advisory Panel, the British Academy Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Committee, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund Advisory Panel. She is actively engaged in the Staffordshire Hoard Research Project, and is co-editor of the forthcoming publication of this major Anglo-Saxon find. Her term will end on the 17th of February 2020.

Appointments to The RCEWA are made by the Secretary of State. Roles are unremunerated.

This reappointment has been made in accordance with the Code of Practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for defined political activity in the last five years to be made public. Neither Richard or Leslie have declared any such political activity.

The UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP), is a five-year, £152 million programme designed to partner UK space expertise with governments and organisations in emerging and developing economies around the world to deliver a sustainable, economic or societal benefit. Satellite data will be used to tackle problems such as flooding, drought, and deforestation.

The 21 chosen projects help provide solutions for local issues in countries across Africa, Asia and Central and South America. They include providing communications in remote areas for education and health provision, improving maritime safety for small fishing vessels in South Africa and Madagascar and reducing illegal logging in Guatemala.

The IPP focuses on using the UK Space sector’s research and innovation strengths to deliver practical and measurable effects to end-users in developing countries. As GCRF forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) ring-fenced budget, the new IPP programme is fully ODA compliant.

Funded from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the IPP forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) ring-fenced budget. They projects underwent a rigorous selection process to ensure that they met strict requirements for ODA and UN sustainability goals. The UK Space Agency part funds IPP projects with a proportion of the cost shared by the programme applicants to ensure cost effectiveness and value for money.

View the whole list of IPP funded case studies.

The IPP will make a second call for applications later this year, with an opportunity for new projects to secure funding.

Case study: Ecometrica, Edinburgh

Forests2020

Grant: £14.3 million Target country: Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ghana and Kenya

This project addresses critical gaps in current forest monitoring systems by providing a sustained and effective forest monitoring system capable of measuring forest change and providing information on the risks and drivers of forest loss. The project focusses on Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ghana and Kenya. It will use publically available Earth Observation optical data and commercial LIDAR/radar products as well as set up in-country capacity building EO monitoring stations.

Case study: exactEarth Europe Ltd (eEE) Harwell, Oxfordhsire

sOuth Africa Safety Initiative for Small vessels Operational Take-Up (OASIS-TU)

Grant: £1.1 million Target country: South Africa, Madagascar Following on from their IPSP project, this project will install 1,500 transponders across the most at-risk artisanal fishing boats in South Africa. exactEarth will use their constellation of ‘Automatic Identification System’ monitoring satellites to track these boats in partnership with the South African Maritime Safety Authority; and this will ensure a more effective rescue approach for the small boats and reduce the current high loss of life in this sector.