Dr. Singh led several key projects in South Asia such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-funded IRRAS project in Bihar, the World Bank-funded APART project in Assam.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) announced last week the appointment of Dr Sudhanshu Singh as the new Director of IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (IRRI SARC) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr Singh took on the role on January 4, 2021.
IRRI Director General Matthew Morell said of the selection and appointment to this strategic and coveted assignment in South Asia for the Institute, “Dr Singh brings a wealth of experience, institutional knowledge, and demonstrated a track record to his new role. This will be pivotal to maintaining, consolidating, and pushing the boundaries of quality outcomes and impact of IRRI’s Research for Development agenda.”
Dr Singh, a native of the Samenda village of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, is an IRRI alumnus who did his Ph.D. in Agronomy in its headquarters in the Philippines and post-graduate and graduate degrees from Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya. Dr. Singh led several key projects in South Asia such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-funded IRRAS project in Bihar, the World Bank-funded APART project in Assam, the European Commission- and International Fund for Agriculture Development-funded projects on abiotic stresses, and the USAID and BMGF-funded CSISA project across South Asia. He was also a key contributor to the BMGF-funded mega project STRASA.
Dr Singh said, “I will focus on its strong positioning as the preferred partner of governments and other NARES organizations in the region by aligning its priorities with the national and regional strategies through demand mapping. We will also work on widening the R4D partnership with key international agencies to make IRRI SARC a center of choice for them. Moreover, tapping of unexplored private & public sector partnership and building a strong linkage with the industry to mobilize resources, scale innovation, and strengthen and leverage successful multi-CGIAR projects and networks for sustained innovations and joint resource pulling will be on top priority agenda for us in 2021.”
