Gray’s School of Art duo join leadership project

Associate Professor Dr Jennifer Clarke and Lecturer Dr Chris Fremantle have been selected to be part of a two-year pilot aimed at supporting Scotland’s next generation of research leaders and make up a group of 13 academics from other universities.

Dr Clarke said: “I’m delighted to be part of the inaugural cohort. The scheme creates an important space to develop interdisciplinary research that brings artistic practice into dialogue with environmental challenges, and to think differently about how to respond to climate change.”

Dr Jennifer Clarke is an anthropologist and artist whose research explores how knowledge is shaped through artistic and image-based practices and collaborative fieldwork, particularly in relation to ecology and society. Dr Chris Fremantle’s research and practice is focused on the role of artists and designers in public life, in particular in environment and health contexts.

Dr Fremantle said: “The climate crisis combined with biodiversity extinction and pollution is the greatest scientific and societal challenge we face. It is a crisis of culture as much as of technology and finance. The Research Leadership Scheme is an amazing opportunity to build skills, collaborations and to develop our understanding of how culture-based actions can be front and centre of this challenge.”

RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE said: “By bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines and supporting them to collaborate on some of the most pressing challenges of our time, the RSE hopes to help build the leadership capacity our country needs. I am delighted to see such an exceptional first cohort embark on this journey, and I look forward to following the positive impact they will undoubtedly make.”

Funded by RSE Foundation and Caledonian Research Fund the Scheme will provide two small cohorts with structured support to build confidence, skills, and leadership capacity through a mixture of mentoring, seed-corn funding, training, and peer learning.

The first cohort, who represent a variety of disciplines, from geography to molecular crop science and public art and design to sustainable development, will work collaboratively around the theme of Building Scotland’s Green Future.