About

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) celebrates its 50th year as the first postgraduate institution in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, AIT remains a vital hub for international, trans-boundary education and research with 1000 graduates annually, a network of 16,000 alumni from about 80 countries and territories. Since its inception in 1959, the Institute continues to promote technological change and sustainable development in the Asian-Pacific region through higher education, research and outreach and actively working with public and private sector partners throughout the region and with some of the top universities in the world. AIT’s goal is to develop and enhance capacity in less developed countries by forming “highly qualified and committed professionals” who will be leaders in regional and global development.

The Institute has been engaged in sustainable development research and projects for a long time. These research efforts are now being consolidated under the thematic knowledge umbrella of “Sustainable Development in the context of Climate Change”. The institute’s focus on multidisciplinary education and research in the region has guided its work through the years under this theme. AIT has decided to commit itself in the following thematic sub-areas drawn from the institute’s academic expertise and field experience. These are—Vulnerability and Risk Reduction, Water Resources and Coastal Adaptation, Urban and Rural Sustainability, Agriculture, Land Use and Forestry, Low Carbon Society and Renewable Technology, and Cleaner Production and Waste Refinery. The intersecting fields of study under these thematic sub-areas as well as cross cutting themes such as gender underline the importance of approaching climate change in a trans-disciplinary manner.


Strategy

AIT’s strategy towards carbon neutrality is encompassed in its Institute-wide thematic research umbrella of “Sustainable Development in the context of Climate Change” (SDCC).  Strategy 2013 outlines the institutional direction of AIT becoming a regional knowledge hub in SDCC research in collaboration with network partners in the private and public sectors. A critical mass of experts are now being formed under the six thematic sub-areas to pursue research, network with partners and collaborate with all stakeholders especially in identifying future areas of research in climate change. A major step towards this direction is the launching of the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Development in the context of Climate Change (SDCC) in AIT during the international conference organized under the same theme.  The SDCC Centre aims to bring together thought-leaders, research groups and SDCC experts to reflect on future research, design action plans and agenda to face emerging issues and urgent themes in climate change and to consolidate the Institute’s research efforts and partnerships be providing a platform to discuss shared initiatives with stakeholders and network partners.

AIT is moving forward towards carbon neutrality in the coming years in all its activities on and off campus. The thematic research team under the “Low Carbon Society and Renewable Technology” in AIT is currently creating models to reduce GHG emissions on campus that will be replicated in other sites. The Institute is producing a broader strategy that will focus on actions towards a low carbon society involving energy supply, demand, technology transfer, financial aspects, among others.

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