Climate Challenges, Collective Solutions: UNSW’s Research for a Changing World
Published on the 28 July 2025 by UNSW Business School EDI Team
Each year, UNSW Business School proudly awards five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Research Grants, empowering our HDR candidates to tackle pressing global challenges.
These grants support innovative research that drives progress toward the UN SDGs (2030 – 2050) through transformative industry or government interventions at local, national, or international levels.
Three of the grants are funded by the UNSW Business School’s SDG Committee, while the remaining two are generously supported by the UNSW Global Water Institute.
The funding is dedicated to advancing research projects that inspire real-world impact and sustainable solutions. For the 2024-2025 cycle, a panel of expert judges selected five exceptional recipients: Caitlin Brines, Sharunya Gnanasubramaniam, Ka Wing Chan, Dwiardi Vergiawan, Gayani Thalagoda.
Their visionary research proposals and compelling presentations distinguished themselves through their rigor, relevance, and transformative potential. Each project exemplifies a commitment to driving meaningful change across industries and communities.
Congratulations to this year’s awardees — bold innovators charting the course toward a more sustainable and equitable future!
To learn more about these expectational research projects, UNSW Business School spoke to each awardee about their research and how this will enable positive Societal impact.
Name: Sharunya Gnanasubramaniam
School affiliation: School of Economics
Thesis title: Collective Action and Land Allocation under Water Scarcity: Evidence from Tank-Based Irrigation Systems in Sri Lanka
What is your thesis about (elevator pitch)?
Tank-based irrigation is a key part of Sri Lanka’s rural water infrastructure, yet it remains under-researched in climate adaptation policy. My research examines how farmers in Sri Lanka’s dry zone respond to climate-induced water scarcity within centuries-old tank-based irrigation systems.
These systems are vital for agricultural livelihoods but require strong collective action to maintain canals and distribute water. Using a public goods framework, I investigate how farmers adjust their land use, particularly whether they cultivate or leave land fallow, based on expected cooperation within their local irrigation institutions.
This study contributes to efforts to strengthen collective governance and climate resilience in rural water management.
Why is this relevant today?
Sri Lanka’s dry zone is experiencing more frequent and intense droughts due to climate change.
Understanding how communities manage shared water resources through collective decision-making is essential for sustaining agricultural productivity and protecting rural livelihoods. My research directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) by promoting equitable and sustainable water governance in agriculture.
It also addresses the growing challenge of managing irrigation under water scarcity in climate-vulnerable regions. Specifically, it focuses on how farmers in tank-based systems coordinate land and water use under environmental and institutional uncertainty.
This project contributes new insights into how institutional trust, environmental stress, and collective behaviour intersect in these systems.
What has been the significance of receiving the UNSW BUS SDG Grant on your research?
The UNSW SDG Grant enabled primary data collection across several tank systems in Sri Lanka. It supported the design of surveys and fieldwork, providing the empirical foundation for my analysis of irrigation governance and cooperation.
Name: Dwiardi "Vergi" Vergiawan
School affiliation: School of Management and Governance
Thesis title: Knowledge Transfer in Imposed Innovation: Rethinking Absorptive Capacity Mechanisms.
What is your thesis about (elevator pitch)?
My research explores how organizations learn and adapt when innovation is not a choice, but a mandate.
Focusing on two public hospitals piloting robotic telesurgery under a government mandate, I explore how knowledge is transferred when organizations operate under constraint and have limited autonomy.
By proposing a comprehensive process model that reveals how organizations navigate innovation imposed from the external stakeholders, I’m uncovering the crucial social mechanisms beyond technical fit that are enabling this effective knowledge transfer.
What contemporary issue does your thesis address?
As governments and global institutions increasingly mandate innovation, such as climate policies, digital infrastructure, or public health reform, organizations must figure out how to make sense of, implement, and sustain these changes under limited autonomy. Understanding how knowledge is absorbed and transferred in these contexts is critical to ensuring these innovations do not just exist on paper but work in practice.
Therefore my thesis addresses the challenge of how the public-sector and heavily regulated organizations can meaningfully engage with complex innovation that is externally imposed, such as those related to healthcare access, sustainability, or digital transformation, especially when they have limited discretion or readiness.
Ultimately, this research project contributes to a better understanding of how multi-stakeholders’ cooperation (SDG #17) can lead to more resilient, learning-oriented ecosystems, particularly in healthcare, where innovation adoption can have real consequences for public well-being (SDG #3).
What has been the significance of receiving the UNSW BUS SDG Grant on your research?
Receiving the Business School’s SDG Grant has been instrumental to the development of this research. The funding will support my attendance at a major conference in management, where I can receive valuable feedback from leading scholars.
What excites me most is that my research will be able to bridge policy, practice, and theory.
In completing this thesis with the help of the grant, I’ll be able to help policy-makers design more effective innovation mandates and supports organizational leaders in creating environments that sustain learning under an imposed innovation context.
I’ll also be able to contribute to rethinking organizational learning, not as a linear, top-down directive aimed solely at achieving technical alignment, but as a dynamic, socially embedded process shaped by context, relationships, and adaptation.