Nidhi Nagabhatla is a Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Coordinator for the Nature, Climate and Health programme at UNU-CRIS.
In this capacity, Nidhi Nagabhatla will be coordinating the projects, programs and activities of the cluster while contributing to environmental governance-related activities and outputs collaborating with staff and networks. She is also the Project Leader at UNU-CRIS for “GCRF Global Seaweed STAR – Safeguarding the future of Seaweed Aquaculture’ a partnership with The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) focusing on developing countries in East Africa and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Nagabhatla is a sustainability science specialist and a systems analyst. With 21 years of work experience, she has led, coordinated, and implemented transdisciplinary projects in various geographical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Americas working with international organisations viz., IWMI, World Fish Centre, IUCN, Asia Pacific Climate Centre, and United Nations University (INWEH) leading research and capacity development initiatives. She is also affiliated with leading academic institutes: Oxford University (UK); Leibniz University (Germany) in various roles, mostly related to sustainability research, science-policy interfacing and mentoring young professionals.
Dr. Nagabhatla is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth, Environment & Society McMaster University, Canada, and a Guest Professor at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia. She served as the Chair of The Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (UNEP) and co-leads the ‘Water and Migration Working Group’ of The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She also served on the Technical Committee of The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from 2013- 2018 and was a lead author in the Global Assessment Report. She also served as the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Steering Board for Young Professional Platform for Agriculture Research and Development (YPARD), FAO from 2011-2018. Currently, she is actively involved with three expert working committees of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
Dr. Nagabhatla holds a doctoral degree from the Indian Space Research Organization in Environmental Science, post-doctoral experience working Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a diploma in International Humanitarian Law from The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, India. She holds executive education from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where she affiliates as a Chevening fellow with the Future Leaders Programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK. She has published more than 200 papers as peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, workshop contributions, and policy briefs and serves on the editorial and review committee of numerous international journals.
Research Interests
- Environmental Governance and Policy
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Environmental Migration
- Nature Based Solutions
- Transboundary Waters and Hydro diplomacy
- Science -Policy Interfaces
- Decision Support Systems
- Policy Support Systems
- Geoinformatics
