Ajay Adhikari is a skilled Researcher with experience in climate change, environmental governance, agriculture and water resources management. He holds a Master of Climate Change from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University (ANU) and a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Water Resources Management from Pokhara University, Nepal. His extensive career includes roles in the academic and leading roles in public sectors, focusing on research, policy analysis, engineering, and project management.

Currently, Ajay is engaged with the Health Data Analytics Team at ANU's College of Health and Medicine, where he performs large-scale quantitative data analysis and prepares policy briefs and reports related to climate change and population health. Before this role, Ajay worked with the researchers at Crawford School of Public Policy and National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health within ANU. His work supports international clients such as the WHO Kobe Centre and the US Census Bureau, and national clients such as the Australian Capital Territory. He has also contributed significantly to systematic reviews and critical analyses of transformational climate adaptation research, underscoring his proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

Prior to his role at ANU, Ajay spent 15 years in Nepal's water resources sector, where he led feasibility studies, technical design, and economic analysis of agricultural water management and flood management projects. His work also included conducting household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions to support water resource development and management initiatives. He demonstrated strong leadership in completing the Irrigation Master Plan 2019, which has successfully been adopted by the federal government and been a guiding document for provincial governments, reflecting his exceptional project management and stakeholder engagement skills. He also led the preparation of Nepal’s largest groundwater irrigation project (40,000 ha) which is currently under implementation, and preparation and implementation of flood risk management project. During his work in Nepal, he worked with the community, government institutions like Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, Provincial and Local governments, NGOs, and international financing institutions like Asian Development Bank, the World Bank.

Ajay's research interests span climate change adaptation, environmental governance, water resources management, agriculture, and population health, utilizing advanced research tools such as R, STATA, and NVivo. He is committed to advancing his career in research and development, and continues to contribute to academic publications, policy briefs and reports that address critical environmental and health challenges. His diverse background, from engineering officer to project director in government sector and research officer in academia, showcases his ability to navigate complex projects and research, and his dedication to sustainable development and policy reform in climate-sensitive sectors.