Research Associate, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Dr Samir Doshi is a Research Associate in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability, part of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. His work connects the fields of development economics, systems ecology, engineering, design and governance to transition degraded and impoverished communities to more sustainable and resilient societies. His research interests include: Inclusive innovations and social entrepreneurship for sustainable development; Sustainability science; Community resilience; Ecological design; and Complex adaptive social-ecological systems.

Samir’s current research focuses on improving the efficiency and efficacy of development innovations in India. Working across stakeholder groups of investors, government, academic researchers, social enterprises and community members, Samir is building capacity on how indigenous initiatives in India can 1) build tools to improve monitoring and evaluation to assess impact of development interventions using mobile and other information and communications technology for development applications (ICT4D), 2) pilot mixed-method interdisciplinary assessment approaches that include immersion, randomized control trials (RCTs) and other methods, and 3) improving communication across the stakeholder groups to improve evidence based decision making.

Samir is a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a former Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar in India. His doctoral research on restoration ecology and industrial sustainability with impoverished coal mining communities in the US contributed to the 2008 Buckminster Fuller Design Award and started two social enterprises.