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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In the next five years, SIAS will further develop its capacity and enhance the quality of research, policy engagement and publications for better science-policy-practice linkage
