Excellence in Research Interdisciplinary Team Award

Winner

MARVI

• Professor Basant Maheshwari, Professor, School of Science and Health
• Associate Professor Maria Estela Varua, Director Academic Program, Economics, Finance & Property, School of Business
• Associate Professor Roger Packham, Systemic Development, School of Science and Health
• Mrs Joycelyn Applebee, Administration Officer, School of Science and Health

The significant and dedicated contributions of Dr Harsharn Grewal, former employee of Western Sydney University are acknowledged

Groundwater levels across India have been falling rapidly and affecting the livelihood and wellbeing of village communities. The top-down approaches to groundwater management had not worked. The MARVI team led interdisciplinary research on sustainable groundwater management in India. Nine organisations from three countries, 35 researchers and 36 farmer researchers worked together to improve the groundwater situation. The project has developed a participatory approach to enable villagers to effectively
monitor groundwater and rainfall and plan for sustainable groundwater use through village co-operatives. This approach is now being adopted in the World Bank project for hundreds of villages across seven Indian States.

Nominated

ECOBOND

• Dr Khoa Le, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics
• Professor Vivian Tam, Associate Dean, International, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics