Akriti Sharma is a PhD Candidate at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India. Her doctoral research, titled “Environmental and Climate Change in the Himalayas: A Case for Regional Cooperation,” examines the prospects for regional cooperation in the Himalayan mountain systems amidst complex geopolitical dynamics. She has been awarded the Senior Research Fellowship by the University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India, in support of her thesis research.
She has previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu, and as a Visiting Researcher at Eurac Research, Italy. Her research draws on interdisciplinary perspectives from international relations, climate justice, and environmental politics to explore how transboundary climate risks and geopolitical shifts shape regional and global climate governance.
As part of her work, she has conducted research visits to Nepal, Italy, Austria, and India, engaging with local institutions and international research centers in both the Himalayas and the Alps to study comparative approaches to mountain governance.