King's College London

The Clara Marina O’Donnell Fellowship was founded in 2014 to honour the life and work of alumni Clara, who was a European Studies undergraduate with the Department of European and International Studies.

The fellowship offers the opportunity of a six-month work placement at the Centre for European Reform (CER) think tank in London. Previous recipients of the fellowship have enjoyed attending conferences, working on policy, presenting and publishing research, and travelling between major global political hubs such as Brussels and Washington.

Clara joined the Centre for European Reform in 2007 as a defence analyst, having previously worked at NATO and Chatham House. In addition to pieces that she wrote for the CER, she contributed articles and papers to other journals and think-tanks, such as International Affairs, Europe's World, Jane's Defence Weekly, European Voice, the EU Institute for Security Studies and the Brookings Institution.

She died of cancer in 2014 at the age of 30.

The fellowship programme is managed by the Brookings Institution (the Centre for the United States and Europe, where Clara was based for part of her time with the CER); Cambridge University (the Department of Politics and International Studies, where she took a Masters in International Relations); King’s College London (the Department of European & International Studies, where she was an undergraduate) and the CER.

Since its inception, a group of 10 scholars have benefitted from the outstanding opportunity offered by the fellowship. You can find out more about the experiences of the scholars here.

Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo, head of the Department of European and International Studies at King’s, said: “By all accounts, Clara was a remarkable person. Her professors at King’s recall her being an excellent student, well-liked by both her fellow students and teachers. It is only appropriate for King’s and the department to continue to honour her memory.”

You can read a tribute to Clara here: https://www.cer.org.uk/personnel/clara-marina-odonnell