Virginia Tech leads international collaboration to enhance infrastructure resilience in India

Virginia Tech’s Center for International Research, Education, and Development has been awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to collaborate with Indian institutions of higher education to improve training, research, and collaborative innovation regarding disaster-resilient infrastructure — a critical need given the increasing impact of climate-related hazards.

Virginia Tech experts in Blacksburg and in India will develop curricula on infrastructure resilience, certification courses for infrastructure management, and focused research on building resilience in critical infrastructure systems such as transportation, power, communication, and even housing.

According to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), extreme weather events caused 70 percent of the world’s average annual infrastructure loss between 2021-22 — costing about $800 billion. Developing countries such as India are among the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of the changing climate.

Established by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, CDRI is a global partnership that brings together academic institutions, governments, international organizations, and the private sector to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure against the impacts of climate change.

Through the CDRI Higher Education Partnership, USAID is partnering with CDRI and Virginia Tech to increase the capacities of the most vulnerable countries to enhance infrastructure resilience through education, training, and knowledge management. Under this partnership, higher education institutions in the United States and India will collaborate to develop a new generation of infrastructure professionals.

“Supporting universities to collaborate and mainstream disaster resilient infrastructure within academic research and curricula is vital. The Infrastructure Resilience Academic eXchange will empower universities to undertake and develop world class research and curricula to foster a generation of risk-informed infrastructure professionals, and in turn disaster resilient infrastructure," said Amit Prothi, director general of CDRI. "CDRI is excited to collaborate with USAID to bring distinguished academic institutions from India and the USA together to further this vital mission.”

The initiative builds upon the Center for International Research, Education, and Development’s extensive experience as a universitywide center leading complex international development projects and leverages Virginia Tech’s long-standing collaborations across India.

Tom Achibald, executive director of the center and an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education, said, “This partnership not only strengthens Virginia Tech’s global leadership in disaster resilience research but also enhances our commitment to creating a sustainable and disaster-resilient future. The university’s expertise in disaster resilience will serve as a critical asset in this project, ensuring that both new and existing infrastructure systems can better withstand environmental challenges.”

USAID/India Mission Director Veena Reddy said, “USAID is proud to support the CDRI Higher Education Partnership with Virginia Tech, which will develop the next cadre of infrastructure professionals, equipped with future-ready skills to lay the foundation for a more sustainable future. As the climate crisis intensifies, collaborative partnerships like this will be instrumental to recognizing the importance of infrastructure resilience as a key component of mitigation.”

A global leader in disaster resilience

The Center for International Research, Education, and Development, part of Outreach and International Affairs, is building a transdisciplinary coalition of partners from across the university — including the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geography, Biological Systems Engineering, and English — as well as three Indian Institutes of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They will also rely on the expertise of the Virginia Tech India Research and Education Forum, which the university established to help faculty members conduct research with leading academic institutions and corporate entities in the most populous country in the world.

The team spearheading this work includes

• Sunil Sinha, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management Center, serving as the project’s deputy director
• Luke Juran, associate professor in the Department of Geography whose expertise is human ecology of water and disasters
• Venkat Sridhar, associate professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering who will advise on flood, drought, and water resource management
• Sweta Baniya, assistant professor in the Department of English whose expertise is in technical communication focusing on transnational disaster studies, crisis communication, and social justice

Together, this diverse group will cultivate a new generation of infrastructure professionals capable of promoting risk-informed infrastructure planning, design, development, and maintenance.

“Having worked on hydrologic extremes and climate change impacts in India such as floods, droughts, landslides, and water management over a decade, I believe this project will provide great opportunities to engage with an array of stakeholders in India,” Sridhar said. “As a Jefferson Science Fellow at USAID in the upcoming year, I am keenly looking forward to advising on the resilience aspects in an integrated way.”

Samantha Power, the head of USAID, announced the partnership in New Delhi in April.

“As we all know from other sectors, these kinds of education, and fellowship, and scholarship, and training, and certification investments are ones that have ripple effects for generations to come — as people get schooled and trained, and come out and then bring their training to bear within governments, in the private sector, and beyond,” Power said.

The Virginia Tech-led consortium will enhance higher education curricula, improve pedagogical approaches, catalyze academia-industry collaboration, and provide professional development opportunities. Gender equality and social inclusion will undergird all program activities.

With a transdisciplinary approach and through deep partnerships, we will apply Virginia Tech’s vast expertise to co-create localized solutions in disaster resilience that can be scaled up and replicated across India and beyond,” said Sinha, a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for sustainable and resilient water infrastructure systems. “This work is grounded in our land-grant values, including our motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).” 

Long-term partnerships across India

Virginia Tech has had a physical presence in South Asia countries since 2009 with research ties that go back even further. The Virginia Tech India Research and Education Forum, for example, inaugurated a satellite office in Chennai in 2023. The new site provides a platform for faculty members to collaborate with companies, researchers, and industry leaders in one of India’s largest cities.

In northern India, Virginia Tech runs the Center of Excellence in Emerging Materials under the leadership of Roop Mahajan, the Lewis A. Hester Chair in Engineering and former director of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. The center acts as a catalyst to foster deep collaboration at the cutting edge of emerging materials such as graphene.

And Virginia Tech has partnered with top-ranked Indian universities such as NMIMS to create innovative programs that allow students to complete bachelor’s degrees in India before earning master’s degrees in fields such as business analytics and cybersecurity and economics at Virginia Tech.

Guru Ghosh, vice president for outreach and international affairs, emphasized the strategic importance of the new infrastructure initiative.

“This collaboration exemplifies Virginia Tech’s global reach and our capacity to act as a force for positive change,” he said. “By leveraging our long-standing collaborations across India and applying our expertise in disaster resilience through inter- and transdisciplinary learning and discovery, we are advancing programs that are recognized as among the best in the world.

“This initiative showcases our commitment to valuable partnerships, innovative approaches, and making a lasting impact on a global scale.”