Projects

Use of amaranh, quinoa, kañiwa and lupine for the development of gluten-free edible snacks

Lahara is a doctoral researcher at the Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku. Her research looks at how transformative futures of development cooperation are imagined and constructed by different actors, through a relational study of donor and recipient perspectives in Finland and Sri Lanka. Bringing together futures research and development studies, she explores how narratives shape ideas of transformation, power, and agency in development cooperation, and what alternative futures might emerge from these perspectives.

Academy Fellow and Principal Investigator of Global Development Studies, focusing on development, politics, and state formation in Latin America and Africa.

With my doctoral dissertation, I find out what kind of challenges the "green" energy transition means for the Sámi: How the industrial land use plans accelerated by the energy transition take into account the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Indigenous Peoples, and what the neglect of the FPIC reveals about assimilating social structures in Finland from the perspective of settler colonialism.

I am a doctoral candidate at Aalto ENG (Water and Environmental Engineering). I research higher education pedagogy for sustainable development, with a particular focus on engineering education, problem-based learning and Global South networks.

The overarching aim of my research is to develop new, sustainable forest management practices and policies that can pave the way for energy transition, climate change mitigation and adaptation, without compromising ecosystem services or the implementation of biodiversity targets. I have expertise in dynamic forest carbon cycle modeling, systems analysis, climate impact assessment, ecosystem service and biodiversity modeling as well as in policies related to climate change mitigation and the sustainability of bioenergy.

Projects

Native Food Innovations from the Andes

Protein2Food

Projects

Biorefining of Citrus Processing Waste (CPW) short: CPW Biorefinery

Project Researcher at the Fine Particle and Aerosol Technology Laboratory (FINE), specializing in small-scale combustion and its emissions. Currently, I am working on the "Technological and socio-economic solutions to reduce indoor air pollution in Nepal" project.

I am starting the Doctorate Program at Aalto University in 2021. My research project aims at investigating how frugal social innovations from the Global South might create alternative concepts and appropriated meanings of quality, well-being, social change, consequently, development. This proposal is aligned with contemporary efforts to link management research to Grand Challenges such as poverty alleviation (Kistruck & Shulist, 2020), positioned at the emergent and interdisciplinary field of Business and Development (Lund-Thomsen et al., 2020). I believe that being part of the UniPID DocNet will be an excellent opportunity to expand my training opportunities, exchange and partnerships, while also collaborating with the network, bringing a different background and commitment to discuss the grand societal challenges and development issues in the world. To embark on such an endeavor, I bring an interdisciplinary and multifaceted background, as a researcher and educator from Latin America, working with topics related to social innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development, including significant experience in international collaborations in Brazil, the USA, Uganda, India, and other countries in Latin America and Europe.