BENGALURU: The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) established two new centres, Centre for Policy Design (CPD) and Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI).
Supported by Rohini Nilekani and WestBridge Capital, with a combined grant of Rs. 5.5 Cr, the centres will be built on ATREE’s 20 years of research in conservation and sustainability science.
Traditional policies or social innovation programmes to make sustainable systems either end up as pilots that fail to scale or have a narrow focus. The centres will address these challenges by taking into consideration the complex ways in which economic, social and ecological systems are interconnected.
Talking about the new centres, Dr. Nitin Pandit, Director, ATREE, said, “ATREE is amongst the top environmental think-tanks globally. The new Centres are a step towards creating a research institution that creates knowledge and strategic partnerships aimed at large scale societal impact.”
The new centres will work towards delivering innovative policy instruments, improved governance mechanisms, as well as dynamic engagement with markets and communities. Through research that creates the state-of-the-art practice, the Centres will tackle critical problems such as invasive species, climate change, water and waste management, food systems etc.
With generous core support from Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, the Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI) will partner with social entrepreneurs to build businesses that create livelihoods for the poorest, while sustaining the natural resource base. Linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals, CSEI will build new capabilities at ATREE through design thinking, market research, demand management, and business modelling.
“Research institutions have traditionally shied away from engaging with market entities. Yet, these entities can have tremendous influence and reach. To enable positive change towards creating a sustainable just society, we need samaaj (society), bazaar (market) and sarkaar (government), to work together. The new centres are a natural extension of ATREE’s work but will contribute to translating research to impact at scale,” said ATREE Board Member, Rohini Nilekani.
With a generous grant from WestBridge Capital, the Centre for Policy Design (CPD) will create collaborations towards the design of effective, evidence-based environmental policy in India. The Centre will synthesize lessons from past and existing programmes to articulate policy and institution design principles in response to opportunities for collaboration from government and legislators.
“For over two decades, ATREE has built a reputation for rigorous and objective scientific research. The organisation is well equipped to play a leading role in policy design. Together, we hope to bring about transformative changes towards sustainable development by bridging science and policy,” said Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, WestBridge Capital.
The new Centres are designed to solve complex socio-environmental problems in a sustainable, scalable and replicable way.
Other recent non-profit grants by WestBridge Capital include sponsoring $1MN for a kitchen in Varanasi to The Akshaya Patra Foundation, in association with the Government of Uttar Pradesh, for providing mid-day meals to 100,000 students.
In July, WestBridge entered into a four-year partnership with the American Indian Foundation by investing $1MN to enable over 43,500 children from migrating communities in rural Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, with the purpose of improving access to quality education and giving them opportunities for a better future.
