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Margaret Mee Fellowship Programme

Viburnum parvifolium by Ana Carolina Bassi Cunha

The Margaret Mee Fellowship Programme (MMFP) enables Brazilian botanical illustrators to study in the UK and, until late 2005, made a highly significant contribution to the furtherance of plant science, sustainability, biodiversity, and the conservation and preservation of the Amazon and Atlantic Rain Forests of Brazil through its research fellowships.

The Programme was inspired by Margaret Mee, the world famous botanical artist whose work has done much to draw attention to the importance of the flora of the Amazon rainforest. Sixty of Margaret Mee’s pictures, the ‘Amazon Collection’, were acquired for deposit in perpetuity at Kew, and have been exhibited at Kew, elsewhere in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

Since 1997 the Margaret Mee Amazon Trust (MMAT) and its successor, the MMFP (administered by the Foundation and Friends of the RBG Kew) have awarded 130 Fellowships for Brazilians to come to Britain to further their knowledge and research. Selection of research fellowships has, until recently, been carried out on a rolling basis by the Scientific Committee, whereas Artist Scholars are selected by the FBMM (Fundação Botânica Margaret Mee) in Brazil.

Seventeen Fellowships have been awarded to botanical illustrators and 104 to biologists since the programme was initiated. The research fellows have for the most part undertaken their studies in Britain at Kew. 

In 2005, due to funding restrictions, it was decided that no more scientific research fellowships would be awarded. Artist scholarships will continue, however, until the remaining funds are exhausted.

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