Anita Heward has led communications for Europlanet since its establishment in 2005, and has overseen the development of communications, outreach and policy strategies for Europlanet through successive EU-funded projects. The current Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) is a €10 million project, funded under Horizon 2020, that runs from January 2020 until July 2024, with over 50 beneficiaries led by the University of Kent. Offering access to over 40 facilities and field sites across 20 countries and four continents, the Europlanet distributed infrastructure is the world’s largest collection of planetary simulation and analysis facilities.

In 2018, Anita was elected as the first Secretary of the Europlanet Society, which was established for the advancement of planetary science and related fields. She holds a MSc degree in Earth Observation Science, a BSc degree in Physics and Space Science and an MA in Creative Writing. She started her career as part of the team that set up the National Space Centre, the UK’s largest attraction dedicated to space exploration and space science. With over 25 years’ experience of freelance communications in the space and astronomy sector, she has overseen the press offices for over 30 international conferences, and organised two editions of the British Festival of Space. She is a director of the educational charity, the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust.

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