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An example of this are the 11 researchers from top global institutions – including Tsinghua University in China and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom – who join the University of ����ɫ�� this year as International Fellows Award (IFA) recipients. 

Introduced in 2023, the IFA program brings some of the world’s best research minds to our University to collaborate on global challenges. 

Among the recipients is Dr Ana Maria Vargas Falla (pictured), an interdisciplinary climate researcher from Lund University in Sweden, who will spend time at our Environment Institute. 

Ana’s research project will explore how to address the double crises of biodiversity loss and climate change through knowledge dialogues. 

She will examine the relationship Indigenous communities in Australia and Colombia have with nature and how their participation in climate and biodiversity initiatives can inform more inclusive and sustainable models of environmental governance. 

“While global calls for sustainability grow, the role of plural knowledges – Indigenous, traditional, and scientific – and local resistance in shaping just and effective adaptation strategies remains underexplored,” Ana says. 

“In the Amazon, Indigenous ecological practices have supported biodiversity and climate adaptation for centuries. In Australia, Indigenous communities and farmers have developed land and water management strategies to cope with extreme conditions. 

“Comparing these systems reveals both parallels and differences that can inform inclusive adaptation strategies, which value biological and cultural diversity.” 

In addition to her research, Ana is piloting a Plural Knowledge Lab – a teaching initiative that encourages students to engage in global dialogues and learn about diverse knowledge systems. 

Welcoming Ana to the University, the People, Nature, Climate Lead at the Environment Institute, Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray, says: “At a time of global crisis, I welcome the opportunity to work with Ana to develop a collaboration around plural knowledges, and to envisage new ways of imagining solutions that span and connect cultures, disciplines and countries.”