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Dr Hita Unnikrishnan, an assistant professor at the Institute for Global Sustainable Development, has been appointed to the Executive Council of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). The appointment follows the unexpected and tragic loss of previous council member Raul Pacheco-Vega, prompting the organisation to invite new academic perspectives to help steer its mission.

The IASC is a globally recognised professional body dedicated to improving the governance, management, and long‑term sustainability of shared resources — from forests and fisheries to digital commons and urban spaces. It brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from multiple disciplines to advance understanding and develop solutions for commons and common‑pool resource challenges.

Founded in part by Elinor Ostrom - the 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economics whose groundbreaking work reshaped global thinking on collective resource management - the organisation continues to play a central role in shaping policy and research worldwide.

Dr Unnikrishnan’s appointment places her among an international group of experts guiding the strategic direction of the association. The current list of council members can be viewed on the IASC website: .

Dr Hita Unnikrishnan has been awarded a substantial research grant by the British Academy following their International Interdisciplinary Research Projects Awards 2026.

Dr Unnikrishnan, an assistant professor within IGSD, received almost £300,000 towards her research project titled ‘Building Resilience through Equitable Action on Temperature, Heat, and indoor Emissions’ (BREATHE), which is being co-investigated by Dr Lavanya Suresh (Birla Institute of Technology and Science), Dr Manik Gupta (Birla Institute of Technology and Science) and Dr Deepshikha Batheja (One Health Trust).

The BREATHE project, which will be carried out over a period of two years, aims to investigate how historical and intersectional inequalities influence differential experiences of heat stress and indoor air pollution (IAP) among members of peri-urban households within the global south.

Working on the hypothesis that women and vulnerable family members within patriarchally-structured households are more likely to suffer from higher rates of heat stress and IAP (due to factors such as more time spent within the home and exposure to unclean cooking fuels), Dr Unnikrishnan and her co-investigators will be combining historical research with large household surveys, satellite data analysis and machine learning models in the Bidar and Chikkaballapur districts of south Indian Karnataka. The project will be pivotal to understanding existing barriers regarding equitable health outcomes and the gendered considerations of climate impact, demonstrating the social and health implications of global sustainability that our School’s research division works tirelessly to raise awareness of.

We congratulate Dr Unnikrishnan on her outstanding achievement. Watch this space for more updates on this project to come!

IGSD and the Sustainability Spotlight Steering Group hosted meetings of international partners from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and India. Ms Nargiz Ismayilova from, Head of Partnerships from Ada University, Dr Akram Umarov, Vice-Rector of UWED and Director of the Institute of Advanced International Studies, and Dr Seema Mundoli from the Climate Change Centre and Sustainability at Azim Premji University, presented their research to the Steering Group, and discussed research projects and suitable funding opportunities with IGSD. In the afternoon they also interacted with EUTOPIA partners at lunch, and met to discuss MOUs with Prof. Michael Scott, PVC International.