GECAFS and The Australian National University are pleased to announce the award of AusAID Australian Leadership Award Fellowship grants to three GECAFS investigators.
Muhammad Arif Rashid Goheer (Senior Research Fellow at the Global Change Impact Studies Centre in Pakistan), Kashif Majeed Salik (Senior Research Fellow at the Global Change Impact Studies Centre in Pakistan), and Gyaneshwar Singh (Programme Manager for Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group in India) participated in a program to enhance regional expertise and collaborations to bridge the research-policy divide.
Altogether, seven selected researchers from six countries travelled to The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia in April-May 2009 to participate in a program of activity encompassing self-directed, reflective and group learning. Ideas for how research can influence policy was traded across the areas of climate change, pandemics and health transition. Activities were directed at supporting each Fellow in developing a policy brief based on their research and an action plan for implementing it. The program also included the development of an online networked community that will be monitored and supported for 12 months and may include additional colleagues. The network will focus on building capacity to improve the research-policy nexus in the home countries of the fellows and throughout the region.