Projects

Projects

LASI in Peru

In Peru, our efforts are focused on collaborations that build long-term capacity in science, technology, and innovation. This focus comes in part as a response to Peruvian congressional legislation challenging its universities to develop the tools and incentives needed to create high quality research, improve student education, and support an innovation economy.

LASI projects in Peru are designed to bridge use-based science and policy with resilient design in a university-led framework. Each effort is initiated by co-development of targeted technical and research infrastructure to support interrelated, interdisciplinary research projects addressing local and regional needs.

Arequipa Global Change and Human Health Institute

The Global Change and Human Health (GCHH) Institute facilitates research collaborations between the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (UNSA) and the University of Oklahoma (OU) across three key areas: understanding environmental change, advancing human health, and designing adaptive social systems. Bringing together multidisciplinary teams of faculty, staff, and students, and partners from the public and private sectors, the GCHH aims to create new knowledge and find solutions that improve Arequipa’s environment while supporting the health of its people. Established in 2021 with an initial grant from UNSA, and now it is second phase of funding, the Institute is a bilateral research and capacity building partnership located on the UNSA campus in Arequipa, Peru, and administered jointly by the Office of the Vice Rector for Research at UNSA and OU’s Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems through its Latin America Sustainability Initiative. This novel arrangement has enabled the infrastructure, research, administrative, and technical, needed to support sustained collaborations and strengthen cross-cultural ties.

The GCHH Institute approach is to: cultivate research capacity and capability at UNSA through peer-to-peer research projects; establish research infrastructure to support faculty and student success; create a culture of engagement with stakeholders; build partnerships and connections to international science community; create and maintain connections to Peruvian regional and national regulatory, policy, and monitoring agencies.

For more information, download our Global Change & Human Health Institute Fact Sheet (pdf).

Sustainable Environmental Management of the Lake Titicaca Basin

Lake Titicaca, at an elevation of 12, 850 feet in the Andean Altiplano, is the highest large lake in the world. More than 120 miles long and 50 miles across at its widest point, it sits in a vast basin straddling the boundary between Peru and Bolivia. Historical and ongoing environmental degradation related to urbanization, agriculture, population growth, fisheries, tourism, and mineral resource extraction are straining the natural resources within the LTB resulting in impaired air, water, and soil with negative effects on human and ecosystem health.

The Sustainable Environmental Management of Lake Titicaca Basin project aims to build a model framework to address regional challenges through research, education and innovation. Jointly developed and implemented by the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Puno (UNAP) and the University of Oklahoma (OU), the project will bring together teams of faculty, staff, and students, with partners from local communities, civil society, governments, and industry to frame the challenges, identify the questions that need to be answered, and create equitable, just, and durable solutions for the people of Puno and surrounding communities. For More Information, download the Lake Titicaca Basin Fact Sheet (pdf).

Knowledge and Cultural Exchange Through the Built Environment: Inti Wasi Sustainable and Affordable Cold Climate Housing

Residential buildings in the highlands of Peru, as in most of the South American Andes, lack a central heating system and are typically built with baked bricks or concrete block walls that lack thermal insulation properties. In these high-altitude regions temperature at night drops to 0°F from May through October. This translates to indoor temperatures in these dwellings as low as 32°F. Low indoor temperatures are associated with cardiovascular problems, extreme discomfort, and respiratory infections. Indoor air contamination from poorly ventilated cooking smoke exacerbates health problems, especially among children and the elderly.

Funded by a grant from the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund, an international team of researchers from OU and the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano in Puno, Peru (UNAP) is addressing these interconnected challenges with a university-led, use-inspired research and teaching project. For More Information, read the latest news about their progress.

Peru Extension and Research Utilization Hub

PERU-Hub is a bilateral partnership between U.S. and Peruvian universities established to build a research and innovation center focused on sustainable agriculture in the San Martin Region of the Peruvian northern rain forest. Originally funded by the USAID with our partners at Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM), researchers at OU are focused on creating an integrated soil and climate monitoring system in the San Martin region to improve the productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers. This research and translation program includes partnerships with Purdue University, Utah State University, the Center for Tropical Research (CIAT), and regional and national stakeholders in Peru leveraging a network of agricultural field stations to facilitate knowledge access and transfer, improved commercialization of value-added products, and access to supply chains for both local and national markets.

For more information, download the Peru Hub Fact Sheet (pdf).