Team
Bath Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Yixian Sun is an associate professor (senior lecturer) in International Development at the University of Bath and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. As an expert of environmental governance and sustainable development, his research examines the changing role of emerging economies – especially China – in global environmental governance. He is an associate editor of Global Environmental Politics and World Development Perspectives. He also serves as a member of the Expert Peer Review Group and a co-chair of the Working Group on Fair share, Equity and Justice for the UN-supported Race to Zero campaign. Find here for more details on his work including all publications for free access.
Faisal is a Doctoral Researcher examining socio-political, economic, and justice implications of the energy transition in Pakistan. He is an experienced energy sector practitioner with diverse academic qualifications including BSc in Mechanical Engineering, Master’s in Energy Management and MBA, M.Sc. in Renewable Energy and MRes International Development.
UKRI-ESRC SWDTP Funded Doctoral Researcher
PhD Student
Jiuyang Li is a funded PhD student in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, focusing on the sustainability governance of China's overseas infrastructure investments. Jiuyang's research explores China's environmental politics and governance. He holds a Master’s in Political Science from Lund University and a Bachelor’s in International Relations.
Ciara O'Brien
Project Manager & Research Assistant
Ciara O'Brien is an undergraduate student in the Department of Politics, Langauges & International Studies at the University of Bath, with a particular interest in foreign policy and international development.
Dr Yitong Ye's research is on comparative politics, environmental governance, and sustainability. She specializes in applying advanced mixed research methods and integrating AI into data analysis across the entire research lifecycle (data collection-> feature extraction-> coding and fine-tuning -> inference & insights), aiming to provide comprehensive insights across analysis levels.
Yitong Ye
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Yuen Gu
PhD Student
Yuen Gu, funded by the China Scholarship Council, focuses her research on China's climate finance and investment abroad, including China's international climate stance, South-South climate cooperation, and climate collaboration under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Steve Powell
Co-founder and Director of Causal Map Ltd.
With 25+ years of experience in global research and evaluation, Steve has led projects from post-tsunami psychosocial programming to East African community resilience. He holds a PhD in psychology on post-war trauma in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Co-founder of Causal Map Ltd., Steve is dedicated to enhancing collection and synthesis of people’s ideas about ‘what influences what’.
Fiona Remnant
Co-founder and Director of Causal Map Ltd.
Fiona is a communications and research professional with expertise in applying academic research in international development. She has held key global roles, including at Sri Lanka's Centre for Poverty Analysis. Co-author of the QuIP and co-founder of Bath SDR Ltd., Fiona works with Steve on her experience from causal mapping QuIP data to help with designing Causal Map.
Causal Map Team
Virgi Agita Sari
Lecturer in International Development
Dr Virgi Sari is a development economist interested in welfare measurement and policy analysis. Her research focuses on poverty and the distributional impacts of global challenges, such as pandemics and climate change, and the role of welfare policies in mitigating these effects. She has worked with international organizations and governments in Southeast Asia to support evidence-based policymaking.
International Partners
Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro
Associate Professor, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Dr Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro is an associate professor at the Department of International Relations, Universitas Gadjah Mada. He has studied Chinese foreign policy as one of his areas of research since 2004. His current focus is the development of the Belt and Road Initiative in Indonesia. He can be reached at nur.rachmat@ugm.ac.id.
Maharani Hapsari
Assistant Professor, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Dr Maharani Hapsari is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She has Master degree and Ph.D degree from the Graduate School of International Development (GSID), Nagoya University, Japan. Her research interest covers knowledge co-production in sustainability transition and political economy of development.
Bowen Yu
Associate Professor, Fudan University
Dr Bowen Yu is an Associate Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University. He is also associate editor of Chinese Political Science Review and affiliated researcher at the Environmental Governance Lab of the University of Toronto. His research focuses on international organization, global development, global environmental governance, and international relations theory.
Muhammad Badrul Hasan
Associate Professor, University of Dhaka
Dr Muhammad Badrul Hasan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science of the University of Dhaka. He completed his PhD on water governance in Bangladesh from Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His research interests include environmental governance, common resource management, disaster and groundwater governance and climate change impact.
Randy Wirata Nandyatama
Assistant Professor, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Dr Randy Wirasta Nandyatama is an Assistant Professor and the head of the Undergraduate Program at the Department of International Relations at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He received his PhD in 2019 from the University of Melbourne. His research interests span global governance, human rights, ASEAN, and Sino-Southeast Asia relations.
Team in Indonesia
Team in China
Team in Bangladesh
Team in Pakistan
Dr. Hina Aslam
Visiting Fellow, SDPI
Dr Hina is a distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), and holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. With over a decade of expertise in Environment, Climate, and Energy research, Dr. Hina is renowned for pioneering the Green CPEC Alliance initiative and has spearheaded transformative programs in green finance and energy transition across Pakistan.
Ubaid is a mechanical engineer with specialization in energy systems, currently leading the clean energy transition and CPEC Green Development Program of SDPI. His areas of expertise include energy, forecasting & short/long-term planning through LEAP & MARKAL/TIMES, investigating and identifying the impact of policy decisions, designing modeling frameworks for both short and long-term energy planning, and spearheading key projects.
Head of Energy Unit, SDPI
Engr. Ubaid ur Rehman Zia
Dr. Khalid Waleed
Research Fellow, SDPI
Dr Khalid is a PhD in energy economics. With over 12 years of experience, his expertise include energy transition (Macro and Micro level). He advocates for tailored approaches that cater to the specific energy needs and consumption patterns, empowering individuals, and communities to actively participate in acceleration of renewable energy and more.
Advisory Board
Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Professor and Canada Research Chair, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia
Professor in Public Policy & Director of Master in Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor and Director, Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA), Georgetown University
Associate Director of Climate, Asia Society Policy Institute & Fellow, Center for China Analysis
Director for National Priority Infrastructure Projects Development and Planning, Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, The Government of Indonesia
President Europe-Asia Center & Former Executive Director UN Envionment
ISEAL, Outreach and Engagement Manager
Development Counsellor and Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation to China
sgain@bath.ac.uk
University of Bath, Claverton Down, BA2 7AY
Contact Us
