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Dr Simon Chaplin
Chief Executive Officer
Simon is Arcadia’s CEO. He was previously Director of Culture & Society at the Wellcome Trust and Director of Wellcome Collection. He is a biologist-turned-historian and has served on the boards of several research-focused organizations including Research Libraries UK, the British Society for the History of Science and the Society for the History of Natural History.
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Dr Arthur Dudney
Director of Cultural Programmes
Arthur manages Arcadia’s cultural grants. He was previously a research fellow at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a teaching fellow at SOAS. He holds a PhD from Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, and an AB from Princeton University’s Department of Classics.
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Dr Mike Heyworth
Consultant to Cultural Programmes
Mike works as a consultant as part of the culture team. He is an archaeologist by training and was previously the executive director of the Council for British Archaeology. He is now a consultant working with a range of archaeology and heritage groups across the UK. He holds a PhD from the University of Bradford in archaeological science.
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Dr Gerardo Fragoso
Director of Environmental Programmes
Gerardo heads Arcadia’s environmental programme. He was previously Head of Programme at the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, where he was responsible for overseeing the provision of advice to national and intergovernmental authorities on the protection of endangered species and their habitats. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Gerardo’s professional and academic experience span marine and terrestrial conservation, both in tropical and in temperate environments. He is also a qualified financial manager.
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Dr Francesca McGrath
Senior Environmental Grants Manager
Francesca manages Arcadia’s environmental grants, alongside Gerardo, Catherine and Emma. Trained as a conservation scientist, she has international experience in coupled human-natural systems in Southeast Asia, US, UK, and wildlife trade in the Middle East. Francesca was previously a research fellow in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Her PhD from the National University of Singapore explored incentive-based conservation programmes in Indonesia. She also holds an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics.
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Dr George Morris
Environmental Programme Officer
George is a Programme Officer working on environmental grants. He was previously an AHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge and held visiting fellowships at the Library of Congress and the Huntington Library. He has written for publications including the New Statesman, the Literary Review and the TLS. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Lund Trust, Arcadia’s sister charity.
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Dr Emma McIntosh
Consultant to Environmental Programmes
Emma works as a consultant as part of the environment team. She specializes in marine conservation, programme design and impact evaluation. Emma previously worked with the Great British Oceans coalition, Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Emma holds a DPhil in conservation science from the University of Oxford.
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Dr Ross Mounce
Director of Open Access Programmes
Ross manages Arcadia’s open access grants. He was previously a postdoc in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, a Software Sustainability Fellow, and a Panton Fellow for open data in science. Ross gained his doctorate at the University of Bath, where his thesis focused on the role of morphology in analyses of evolutionary relationships that include fossil species.
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Tami Shacham
Chief Operating Officer
Tami heads Arcadia’s operations and communications. She previously worked at Yad Hanadiv, a Rothschild family foundation. Tami has a master’s degree in culture studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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Lucy Bromley
Operations and Communications Officer
Lucy works with Tami and Sofia on Arcadia and Lund Trust's operations and communications. She previously worked at Sotheby’s, an international fine art auction house. Lucy has a master’s degree in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh.
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Sofia Sancho
Operations Assistant
Sofia works with Tami and Lucy on Arcadia and Lund Trust's operations and communications. She has a bachelor's degree in Human Sciences from University College London.
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Andrew Wright
Director of Lund Trust
Andrew leads on strategy and grant-making for Lund Trust, our sister-charity. He previously worked for Cripplegate Foundation, a charitable trust in North London. Andrew has an MA in Aegean Archaeology and an MSc in Philanthropy, Grantmaking and Social Investment.
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Olivia Dryden
Lund Trust programme Officer
Olivia works with Andrew on Lund Trust's grant-making. She previously worked in project management and grant-making at the Prince’s Countryside Fund, Trees for Cities, and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Olivia has an MSc in International Development and a BA in African Studies with Anthropology.
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Total awarded since 2002:$billionOur giving by programmePreserving endangered culture%$ mProtecting endangered nature%$ mPromoting open access%$ m
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Arcadia is a family charitable fund. Our founders, Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, set up Arcadia in 2002. We are run by a small London-based team of experts in their fields.
We have three grant programmes: preserving endangered culture, protecting endangered nature and promoting open access.
We support charities, non-profit organizations and scholarly institutions. We carry out deep due diligence before committing funding. Potential grantees must demonstrate that they are best placed to carry out our shared objectives in an effective, sustainable and ethical manner. We also support scholars carrying out endangered culture documentation work through our regranting schemes (see 'what are regranting schemes').
We give grants internationally and are not restricted by geography. We support work where we believe it is most needed, where there is most promise, and where conditions will allow those we fund to achieve effective and long-lasting outcomes at minimal risk to teams on the ground. Our grant holders rely on partnerships with local organizations and practitioners, to ensure that their expertise and interests are integral to the work.
Our giving is led by our founders and their vision. They make decisions on our strategy and grantmaking. The Arcadia team researches needs and gaps in our focus areas, and makes recommendations for interventions and partners that would best deliver on our aims. Our advisory board and networks support the development of our initiatives. Our founders make decisions on new grants annually.
We award grants ‘in principle’, based on an initial outline of the work to be funded and supporting due diligence, before inviting potential grantees to submit full grant proposals. Our team then works with potential grantees to develop their proposals. This means that organizations do not waste time on applications or lengthy grant proposals that may not be successful.
Arcadia’s grants and operations are privately funded by the family trusts.
Arcadia Philanthropic Trust is an irrevocable and exclusively charitable trust.
The trustee is Talvik Trust Services AG, a licensed trust company regulated by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority.
We do not accept applications for funding. We rely on our own research and networks and seek out those that most align with our vision and approach.
Because we are a small team, we are not able to respond to all enquiries and requests for meetings.
Organizations and individuals can apply for funding through our regranting programmes: the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, Endangered Archives Programme, The Endangered Modern Archives Program, The Endangered Material Knowledge Programme and the Endangered Landscapes Programme.
We publish information about our grants openly on our grants directory and with 360 giving. You can also find information about our giving in our here - you can read our most recent report here. If you want to find out more about our giving you can follow us on Twitter @ArcadiaFund or get in touch at info@arcadiafund.org.uk.
We run three grant programmes: preserving endangered culture, protecting endangered nature; and promoting open access. Each year we also make some grants to organizations and causes that our founders have a personal ongoing commitment to, or interest in. These discretionary grants are additional to those made through our three grant programmes.
Lund Trust, Arcadia’s sister charity, is dedicated to making gifts to organizations and work to which our founders have a special personal connection.
We outsource some of our grant-making so that we can effectively identify and respond to on-the-ground needs.
Our first regranting programme, the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, started in 2002. Now, we run eight active cultural and environmental regranting programmes. So far, we have awarded more than $100 million through our regranting programmes.
One of the challenges we face as grant-makers is determining where and when our support is most needed, and how best to use our resources to achieve lasting, meaningful outcomes. As a small team, one way we work is through regranting schemes – Arcadia grants that are distributed by partner organizations and networks with the knowledge and capacity to identify where the greatest need and opportunity exists. This allows us to support local initiatives worldwide that are best placed to deliver verifiable outcomes. Sometimes we work with existing networks to distribute funds. Where no such network exists, we develop new programmes.
To establish these programmes we:
- Define the need. We do research and seek expert advice. This can include commissioning scoping studies.
- Find a partner. We identify partner institutions that are well-established and well-connected, experts in their domains; and have knowledge and capacity to provide support and mentoring to grantees.
- Establish a programme. We work with the partner to shape criteria and advise them as they develop a proposal to administer the programme.
- Select a panel. We work with our partners to appoint panels of world-class domain experts to make decisions on grants and develop programme strategy.
- Monitor and evaluate. We monitor progress through written reports, participation at panel meetings, and ongoing correspondence with our partners. We commission external evaluations at strategic points.
One of Arcadia’s aims is to promote open access to information. For this reason, we ask that all materials resulting from our grants are made publicly available for free via the internet.
Peer-reviewed research articles, book chapter and books
Research publications funded in whole or in part by Arcadia must be freely available online.
For grants we awarded after 1 January 2022 our policy for research articles will align with Plan S. All peer-reviewed articles resulting from our grants must be freely available without embargo and under a suitable open license, preferably the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
Grant recipients can comply with the policy by publishing in an open access journal or platform, or by making a copy of the author-accepted manuscript immediately available through a suitable repository. In line with the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy grantees must not transfer copyright in their research articles to a publisher.
Grant recipients should make scholarly books and book chapters freely available online at the time of publication, or at a maximum of one year from the date of publication, via a publisher’s platform or other open access repository.
We strongly encourage grant recipients to choose publishing routes that support open access without levying charges. However, we allow reasonable book or article processing charges to be included in the grant budget. In line with Plan S, we will not support article processing charges for hybrid journals except for those covered by Transformative Agreements up to 31 December 2024.
Research data and other digital materials
Research data and any other digital materials funded in whole or in part by Arcadia must be freely available online wherever possible, for as long as the grantee organization exists.
We expect grant recipients to make all data and digital materials, including repositories of heritage documentation, freely available online. In doing so, grant recipients must ensure that the privacy and rights of indigenous and marginalized cultural groups are respected, and that confidential, proprietary, and sensitive data are appropriately protected. Grant recipients must manage and share digital data arising from our grant in accordance with FAIR and CARE principles. The materials that grant recipients make available online must be of sufficient quality to ensure that they can be used for research. This commitment will last for as long as the grantee organization exists.
See here what we do to support open access.
We are taking active steps to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment. We ask grant recipients to do the same.
Grant recipients must minimize unnecessary travel, particularly air travel. Our policy is to only make essential trips and to champion alternative ways of collaborating with others. This saves time and money, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions (that contribute to global heating). We ask that our grantees do the same for the work that we fund and report to us on the air travel they make.
We ask grantees to share with us their sustainability policy if they have one. We also encourage grantees to periodically review the environmental impact of their activities and to use findings to take active steps to minimize their carbon footprint.
See here what we are doing to try to run a greener Arcadia.
Please bear in mind that we do not accept applications for funding. If you would like to learn more about Arcadia please email us at info@arcadiafund.org.uk.
As we are trying to reduce the amount of paper we use, please contact us by email rather than post wherever possible.
