HI-AWARE Academy facilitators and participants
Photo: Jitendra Bajracharya/ICIMOD

HI-AWARE organised an Academy from 27 February–4 March, 2016 in New Delhi and Dehradun, India, to strengthen the expertise of its researchers, including students, to conduct trans-disciplinary research on climate/social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation in three river basins in the Hindu Kush Himalayas—the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra.

The HI-AWARE Academy was a capacity-building workshop designed for PhD and Master’s students involved in the HI-AWARE project. The idea of partnering with universities and supporting students in the South Asian region came about as a means to aid the development of the HI-AWARE research community and to contribute to its development.

The Academy acted as a platform for the sharing of research ideas and experiences between students and researchers in the region. The Academy further envisaged to nurture the next generation of climate leaders and provide a basis on which to build stronger collaborations with the Himalayan University Consortium (HCU), an initiative of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). The aim of the HCU is to build a dynamic mountain knowledge partnership among universities, ICIMOD, and regional member-country partners to promote research and learning.