New Delhi, 10 June, 2026: Ashoka University has been awarded a GBP 1.94 million research grant from the UK's Wellcome Trust for a four-year project examining the public health impacts of India's climate mitigation efforts. The grant goes to two of the university's Centres of Excellence — the Ashoka Centre for a People-Centric Energy Transition (ACPET) and the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART).
Launched in March 2026, the project is co-led at Ashoka University by Professor Vaibhav Chowdhary, Director, ACPET, and Professor Poornima Prabhakaran, Director, CHART. The international consortium also includes Markus Berensson, Head of Mitigation Research at C40 Cities, and Dr Gaurab Basu, Assistant Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The team aims to assess how India's climate mitigation pathways can deliver measurable public health benefits at the national, urban, community, and household levels.
Designed in collaboration with policymakers including NITI Aayog, the project combines expertise across climate policy, air pollution, public health, energy transitions, and behavioural interventions. ACPET contributes work on just transition pathways, including its project to support coal mine communities in Rajhara, Jharkhand, while CHART brings PM2.5-health modelling and epidemiological data. The partners are also working to embed research tools within government frameworks such as NITI Aayog's India Energy Security Scenarios (IESS) 2070.
The work supports India's Net Zero by 2070 target, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 in Glasgow. It seeks to show how strategies such as urban decarbonisation and clean cooking transitions can reduce disease burdens and support sustainable development. The consortium held its first in-person meeting in Mumbai on 8 June.
Speaking on the project, Vaibhav Chowdhary, Director, ACPET, Ashoka University, said, "In an increasingly geopolitical world, national developmental priorities are being recalibrated, particularly pertaining to the impacts of climate change. Our project aims to bridge the science of climate and health by generating actionable evidence that safeguards the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities while enabling resilient, inclusive, and low-carbon growth."
Professor Poornima Prabhakaran, Director, CHART, Ashoka University, added, "This multi-institutional collaborative project will provide nuanced insights into the health and economic co-benefits of India's energy transition at the national, city, and community level. We hope the findings from exploring the energy-health nexus will provide meaningful pathways to beneficial societal impact and health of our population at large."
Somak Raychaudhury, Vice-Chancellor, Ashoka University, Delhi-NCR, said, "This recognition from the Wellcome Trust is a significant milestone for Ashoka University and reflects our commitment to building a rigorous ecosystem of interdisciplinary research. Initiatives such as this bring together science, policy, and societal impact and reinforce our belief that universities must play a central role in addressing complex global challenges."
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