About us

Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies(SIAS)

Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) is a research institute aspiring to become the ‘Centre of Excellence’ in South Asia led by a vibrant team of academics and researchers of national and international repute. It was established in 2011 as a platform for advanced research, policy engagement and scholarly exchange, with a thematic focus on environment and climate change, democracy and governance, disaster risk management, urban resilience etc.

Vision

SIAS envisions itself to be recognized in Nepal, South Asia and
globally as a unique South-based high quality research and academic organization, with a repute of a policy think tank.

Mission

SIAS’s mission is to nurture, cultivate, organize and promote critical knowledge, research and scholarly learning in South Asia. It intends to expand its geographical coverage in South Asia beyond the current working areas – Nepal, North India and Bangladesh.

Latest update

  • Generate action verified lessons and the state-of-the-art knowledge on environmental, socio-economic and political issues contributing towards policies and practices for inclusive and sustainable development
  • Engage critically in the policy processes from national to local levels bolstered by the knowledge generated from research, critical policy analysis and stakeholder dialogue.
  • Develop capacity of research community and professionals committed to inclusive and sustainable resource management and socio-economic transformation in the region
  • Inform practitioners, policy makers and epistemic community (researchers and academia) through diverse form of communication and dissemination of the knowledge generated through research and policy analysis

Activities

We promote a culture of critical inquiry by focusing in research and publications in a bid to fill the gap in existing knowledge in our core thematic areas. Furthermore, we have a demonstrated experience of rendering significant contributions to policy and political discourses through our democratic governance programs in the recent years as Nepal transitions into a new political system. Nurturing advanced research, policy engagement and scholarly exchange in South Asia region have remained the hallmark of our work.

Approach

We adopt an interdisciplinary approach and specialize in advance studies- research, scholarly publications and seminar series. We conduct critical debate and discussion on contemporary development issues inviting relevant stakeholders including policy makers, aspiring researchers and university graduates to advance emerging discourses on the themes that we work upon.