International Secretariat

The International Secretariat for the Sustainable Water Future Programme (Water Future) is in Brisbane, Australia. It is a not-for-profit organisation ( Australian Business Number ABN: 77476990859) providing scientific services to help direct and drive solutions to global water problems.

Griffith University hosted it for the last eight years (2016-2023).

The International Secretariat is managed by the Executive Director,  Professor Anik Bhaduri. It is supported by its nodes, Water-Future Australia and Water-Future Canada, each comprising a consortium of leading universities and organisations.

The International Secretariat plays a key role in implementing the programme’s strategic priorities and facilitating communication processes. To support Water Future’s networking role, the International Secretariat functions as a node and information hub, collecting information, ensuring communication flow and organising events relevant to the entire programme.

The International Secretariat is further responsible for the dissemination of outcomes and results of the Programme’s activities. Staff members represent the programme at important scientific and programmatic meetings, lobbying and initiating new activities and partnerships and fostering research activities. Equally important, the International Secretariat serves the governing body of Water Future, namely The Planning Committee, and also attends to the Scientific Committee through the coordination and implementation of decisions.

In collaboration with the Working Groups and its broader network of scientists, the International Secretariat is responsible for attracting third-party funds and preparing research proposals. Communication and outreach activities for the programme are concentrated within the International Secretariat, which also supports selected activities of the projects in this realm. It’s main responsibility is to provide services of crosscutting interest for the entire programme.

Anik Bhaduri

Executive Director and Member of the Planning Committee

Anik Bhaduri is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Water Future Programme ( Water Future), member of the Planning Committee and is an Associate Professor within the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University. Previously, he served as Executive Officer of the Global Water System Project (GWSP).  With a background in environment and natural resource economics, Anik has specialised in water resource management. He has worked on several topics and projects, ranging from transboundary water sharing to adaptive water management under climate change. Anik also serves as a senior fellow at the Centre of Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany.

 

Chris DeBeer

Science Manager, Canada Node

Chris completed a B.Sc. (Honours) in Physical Geography at the University of Saskatchewan in 2004, an M.Sc. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in 2006 (supervisor: Professor Martin Sharp), and a Ph.D. in Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2012 (supervisor: Professor John Pomeroy).  He started work at the Global Institute for Water Security in December 2010 as the Institute and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security were being established at the University of Saskatchewan under the leadership of Professor Howard Wheater.  Since March 2013, Chris has worked as the project manager for the Changing Cold Regions Network, and he has served in the role of Science Manager for the Global Water Futures Programme since the fall of 2016.  Chris’ research interests are on snow and glacier hydrology, hydrological modelling, and understanding and prediction of physical Earth system responses to climate variation.

Phani Adapa

Director of Operations, Canada Node

Phani Adapa is the Assistant Director for the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS), University of Saskatchewan (UofS) and Director of Operations for the Global Water Futures (GWF) program, Canada First Research Excellence Fund. His expertise is in the area of research administration and provides strategic advice to the GIWS and GWF senior leadership teams.  He is responsible for day to day operations of the GIWS and GWF; to oversee staff performance; develop new and sustain existing collaborations with stakeholders, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, external funding agencies, industry partners; support internationalization efforts, assist and where required lead coordination and writing efforts for development of major grant applications. In addition, he is also responsible to facilitate and coordinate research and administrative efforts of the GWF community including 138 partners (Federal and Provincial Government Agencies, industries, international institutions, non-governmental and indigenous communities), and over 380 researchers from 18 Canadian universities.

Phani has Bachelor of Science (1998) and Master of Science (2001) degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering (2011).