arequipa nexus institute
for food, energy, water and the environment
The Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (UNSA) in Arequipa, Peru and Purdue University in Indiana, USA through the Office of Research have partnered to create a bold new research, education, and innovation institute to work together on key challenges to a sustainable future for the peoples of Arequipa. The Arequipa Nexus Institute for Sustainable Food, Energy, Water and the Environment (The Nexus Institute) launched its multiphase collaboration in March 2018.
The Arequipa Nexus Institute leverages the institution-level faculty, student, and infrastructure commitment of UNSA and the combined strengths of research faculty and infrastructure from Purdue’s Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Health and Human Science, Liberal Arts, Science, Purdue Polytechnic Institute, and Purdue libraries.
Purdue leadership visits UNSA to launch implementation of Phase 3 research projects, July 2023
Nexus Partnership
Overview of the Nexus Institute partnership between the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa and Purdue University.
Aiming to Improve Food Resource Management
Strengthening Water Resource Management
'Organic Agriculture Systems' Project: Improving Farmers' Soil and Crop Health in the Colca Valley
The Arequipa region faces many complex social and environmental challenges. Among them:
These social, environmental, and economic challenges are interconnected in complex ways and demand innovative, multi-team approaches for effective change. Any truly effective solutions must be future adaptive, come with minimal trade-offs, and grounded in the unique social systems that define the region—its structures and institutions, infrastructure, regulatory systems, and economies, as well as attitudes, lifestyles, and policies and practices. The Nexus Institute will apply data-driven, interdisciplinary science, technology, and innovation to help chart a new course toward a sustainable future.
To be a vibrant research, education, and innovation ecosystem where transformative solutions to grand challenges faced by Arequipa, Peru, and Latin America are explored.
To build capacity and the strategic, long-term collaborations needed to address key environmental, agroeconomic, and social challenges to support development of adaptive, profitable, and sustainable food-energy-water systems in the Arequipa region of Peru.
Purdue’s International Programs in Agriculture (IPIA) has a long tradition of global engagement promoting regionally tailored methods of agricultural research, education, and capacity building. IPIA and UNSA partners will co-manage and co-develop customized workshops with technical training modules on food-energy-water systems, environmental management, and tools for microbiological, plant, geochemical and GIS analysis to be held at both Purdue and UNSA.
Purdue’s Foundry, an entrepreneurial and commercialization accelerator for innovators that helps concepts become companies, is the model for an UNSA Foundry and Technology Park in Arequipa. Adapting commercialization tools developed at Purdue for Arequipa will create the ecosystem necessary to foster local talent and innovation, grow businesses and support the local economy, and help bring socially-responsible, market-based solutions to bear on the region’s environmental challenges.
The National University of San Agustín de Arequipa was founded on Nov. 11, 1828 as a public university in Arequipa, Peru. Its mission is to train high-quality professionals to be competitive, capable of being agents of change and development in society, and excellent researchers capable of solving the problems that impact the environment of the region and Peru.
The mission of the Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) is to promote proactive, interdisciplinary research, learning, and engagement at Purdue addressing important environmental challenges. ISF works with global partners to conduct use-inspired science to address humanity’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges.
The mission of the Office of Research is to oversee Purdue University’s wide strategic initiatives and all operational and regulatory functions of the University research enterprise. This Office catalyzes Purdue-led research by bringing together researchers and resources across traditional academic boundaries and providing guidance and support for their work to drive discovery and societal impact.
Lori Hoagland
Professor, Purdue University
Horticulture And Landscape Architecture
Nexus Institute Co-Director
E-mail: c4e-nexus@purdue.edu
Walter Daniel Leon-Salas
Associate Professor, Purdue University
Purdue Polytechnic Institute
Nexus Institute Co-Director
E-mail: c4e-nexus@purdue.edu
Dennis Macedo
Associate Professor, UNSA
Agronomy
Nexus Institute Co-Director
E-mail: dmacedov@unsa.edu.pe
