Raymonde Rivoallan Grant

The Raymonde Rivoallan grant – instituted by Marie-Céline Buchy in honour of her grandmother Raymonde Rivoallan – is no longer available. It has been superceded by the AMG and the ERC, but the legacy of Raymonde Rivoallan now continues to contribute to the funding of these grants.

Below is a message from Marie-Céline Buchy explaining the noble history of this grant programme:

“A first attempt at creating a Fund aligned with the EWVP was made during the 5th meetingheld in Karlsruhe in 2000. An auction succeeded in collecting a sum that was passed to the organisers of the following year’s meeting in Florence, and financed the attendance of one student.
The attempt, though, did not become a habit.

The death of my grandmother Raymonde Rivoallan in April 2003 unfortunately provided me with money I did not want not use for ‘normal’ purposes. Her interest in Palaeontology had always been remote, but at the same timeshe would never have denied anybody the right to study weird extinct creatures. She would have hated me putting words in her mouth, but from her life, something like ‘hold your head high and only give up when it’s hopeless – but really hopeless’ sounds an appropriate motto.

This sorrowful chance was taken to help colleagues from the East to attend the founding meeting of the EAVP in Basel, thus giving our association a truly European dimension.

Thanks to special events during the WEAVPs as well as the generosity of donors, I can see a hope that the Raymonde Rivoallan Fund will become well established and continues to support our ambitions of European, multidisciplinarity and solidarity.”

Marie-Céline Buchy.