Collaborative leadership strengthens research capacity and climate action: Lessons from Tamil Nadu, India
Many international research programs, often from the Global North, collaborate with local institutions mainly to collect data without the kind of capacity sharing or shared decision-making opportunities that would help them build improved methodological and analytical skills.
- climate change
By Suresh Babu, D. Suresh Kumar, and Sudha NarayananAugust 21, 2026
Key takeaways
- Local leadership builds lasting research capacity. In a collaborative project in Tamil Nadu, transferring ownership to local partners helped to ensure long-term sustainability.
- Aligning research with local priorities improves impact. Collaboration with local and national stakeholders strengthened adoption and relevance.
- Capacity development goes beyond technical training. Management, communication, and leadership skills were critical to project success.
Many international research programs, often from the Global North, collaborate with local institutions mainly to collect data without the kind of capacity sharing or shared decision-making opportunities that would help them build improved methodological and analytical skills. This approach fails to leave sustainable capacity that would help countries develop more robust research and policymaking institutions.
The global research ecosystem should move away from such top-down research collaboration and transition toward equitable, locally led research governance.
In this post, we document lessons from such a multidisciplinary research and capacity development collaboration focused on reducing methane emissions in rice farming in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The project was overseen by IFPRI and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and funded through Global Methane Hub (GMH-IFPRI-TNAU).
The project showed ways to build successful research collaborations that bridge international, country-level, and community institutions and build lasting local and national research capacity.