Our Story
Photo by Manjunatha G
Who We Are
Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs co-creates research and innovation for social impact in the areas of land and water sustainability.
We design and curate systemic, science-based solutions using a collaborative approach to enable a high quality of human life while simultaneously nurturing the environment.
Why We Started
Our world faces grave threats, such as climate change, resource depletion, pollution, and water and food insecurity. However, the manifestation of these problems, their causes and solutions are often unique and local.
We cannot remedy these issues one watershed or village at a time—the pace of change would be too slow.
We felt the need to seed an alliance that solves problems at scale while also responding to local challenges and grassroots stakeholders. So, we started WELL Labs in April 2023 to collaboratively gather evidence on pressing land, water and livelihood challenges, design solutions and quickly replicate these across regions.
WELL Labs is solving problems at scale while also responding to local challenges and stakeholders. Photo by Manjunatha G
Our Founder
Dr Veena Srinivasan, founder, WELL Labs
Dr Veena Srinivasan, a water expert with 20 years of experience, set up WELL Labs in 2023.
She is leading our mission to transform scientific research into real-world impact by designing solutions that simultaneously create livelihoods and conserve the environment.
Veena received her PhD from Stanford University and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
She has won several awards for her work, including the 2015 Jim Dooge Award from the European Geophysical Union, the 2012 Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award from the American Geophysical Union. She chairs the Strategic Advisory Group for the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for UN SDG6 and was the Prins Claus Chair at Utrecht University, Netherlands, from 2018 to 2020.
Our Cohort
WELL Labs is a centre based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Society. Together with Krea University and other centres at IFMR, such as the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia and Leveraging Evidence for Access and Development (LEAD), WELL Labs is part of an ecosystem of labs and research centres with a mission to help prepare for an unpredictable world.
IFMR Society was established in 1970 as a not-for-profit to provide research-based inputs to industries and the government. Krea University was set up in 2017 with a school of interwoven arts and sciences and the IFMR Graduate School of Business.
KREA University