The Churchill Fellowship is open to applications once more.

What is a Fellowship?

A Churchill Fellowship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the change you want to see. The Fellowship funds you to spend between 4-8 weeks meeting and learning from the innovators in your field anywhere in the world, in person or online. It then helps you to use and share that learning to make a difference in your community or professional sector in the UK.

Who can apply?

Churchill Fellowships are open to all UK adult citizens, regardless of background, qualifications or age. The Fellowship are looking for people with the passion and potential to make a real difference, from every part of society. A select few Fellows are chosen every year.

Ocean and Coastal Fellows

OCF is shining a light on Fellows who have had the opportunity to meet inspiring individuals and bring back insights for the benefit of the UK’s marine and coastal environment and people.

The first in our series of interviews highlights the Fellowship experience of Churchill Fellow Duncan Vaughan. Duncan is in conversation with David Tudor, another Churchill Fellow.

• Where did you travel?

I split my Fellowship into two parts, the first in Europe with time spent in Paris, Brussels (the European Commission), the Netherlands (Hague and Amsterdam) and Norway (Oslo, Bergan, Tromsǿ).  In the second half of the Fellowship, I visited the USA with a trip to Washington DC that ended up in the Executive Office of the President of the United States – Council of Environmental Quality next to the White House speaking to the Director of the National Ocean Council.  This was followed up with visits to Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

• What did you study?

Marine planning in England was in its formative years with lots of potential around the time of my Fellowship.  I wanted to better understand how marine planning could develop in such a manner that the importance of the marine environment outside of marine protected areas could be recognised.

• In what way/s was your employer supportive?

Natural England was super supportive of the Fellowship for which I am extremely grateful for.  I was able to split my time with three weeks travelling in Europe and three weeks travelling the USA to ensure that the time away did not significantly impact my day job.  Because the Fellowship was directly related to my role I did not have to take annual leave. I also didn’t take the day job with me so that I could concentrate on getting the most out of the Fellowship.

• What did you gain from the experience personally?

Reinvigorating curiosity – everybody has an interesting story to tell, you just have to start the conversation and ask the right questions to get to it.

• What did you gain from the experience professionally?

Hopefully credibility in the subject of marine planning and marine protection as well as a bigger network of peers and friends that I still share experiences and information with.

• What impact do you think the Fellowship had? On you, your employer, UK marine management?

Positive – I came back from the Fellowship and was able to apply what I learnt straight away forming Natural England’ understanding and approach to marine protection outside of Marine Protected Areas.

• In what way does the UK differ from the countries you visited?

We have the Fellowship – pretty much everybody I spoke to on my travels was blown away by the opportunity to stop and think deeply about a subject and speak to experts on the subject.  Take 6-8 weeks away from work to think……….incredible.

• What was the highlight of your trip?

Spending a day lobster fishing on an inshore commercial Massachusetts fishing boat operated by a relative of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association CEO.  This opportunity came from a discussion on the challenges that fishers face trying to continue operating in an area where the endangered Right Whale feeds.  I was able to hear first hand about the measures that they are trying to put in place to reduce whale entanglements.

• Can you tell us story about your trip

My Fellowship’s first stop was to meet Charles Ehler – you could consider him the godfather of marine planning – and spending several hours chatting to him on a beautiful white couch overlooking the River Seine being petrified of spilling a lovely burgundy he opened for us. To have access like that at the start of the trip was exciting, inspiring and a lovey way to get the Fellowship going. His quote still has stuck with me: “Marine spatial planning is a contact sport, it’s not ping pong, it’s rugby”

• Did the Fellowship open unforeseen opportunities or take you on a certain path on your return?

The Fellowship provided the opportunity to collaborate on a book chapter with Tundi Agardy on Marine Planning and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) several months after the Fellowship ended – Tundi is one of the foremost global experts thinking and writing about MPAs.

• Is there any place, event, person you want to highlight that particularly stood out for you or was memorable?

Visiting Plymouth in the USA and the place where the pilgrims settled.  This was a couple of years after I had visited Plymouth in the UK during which I had had gin in the Plymouth Gin Distillery where there is a piece of wood with all of the pilgrims and their occupations on the wall as they had stayed at the distillery the night before they departed for the US.

I remembered I had taken a picture of this at the time, so found it on my phone and then visited the cemetery in Plymouth in the US to track down some of the graves of those individuals.   Mind blowing to walk around the cemetery thinking about challenges they must have faced them on both the voyage and subsequent years following settlement.

• Are there any tips you’d give prospective Fellows?

Apply!  Find a Fellow that has completed a Fellowship in your area of interest and reach out to them to discuss your idea. We like talking about our experiences and are excited about your potential ones.

• Would you recommend a Churchill Fellowship and why?

Yes! Who doesn’t want a chance to meet amazing, inspiring people to talk about their and your passion.

Find out more

You can read more about Duncan’s travels here.

Further information about a Churchill Fellowship can be found here. This year’s application window is open until 12 November 2024.