Somaiya Vidyavihar University sponsors REACH, a residential fellowship for Somaiya’s young alumni to engage closely with rural communities—farmers, artisans, tribal groups, and rural students—within the Somaiya ecosystem. Fellows gain first-hand exposure to lived realities by documenting traditional practices and understanding everyday challenges and opportunities, while developing empathy, field research skills, and a deeper appreciation of community-led change.
Dahanu, Palghar District,
Maharashtra
Trbal Communities, Women Farmers & Children
Dongri, Sehore District,
Bhopal
Tribal Communitiesm Art, Culture & Forest systems
Sameerwadi Village, Bagalkot District,
Karnataka
Farming community and Artisans
Villages in Kachchh District,
Gujarati
Artisans
The REACH Fellowship combines baseline research, community engagement, participatory learning, and field immersion to document, understand, revive, and strengthen traditional knowledge systems and ecological practices through scientific inquiry and collaborative learning. Situated at the intersection of research, storytelling, pedagogy, art, and sustainability, the programme explores the science, ecological value, and lived wisdom embedded within traditional practices while supporting communities through documentation, skill development, co-creation, and meaningful engagement. The Fellowship’s guiding principles are rooted in sustainability-focused inquiry, human-centric thinking, experiential and heuristic learning through exploration and discovery, collaboration, co-designing, and research synthesis, creating a platform that builds foundational knowledge for future research, experiential education, public engagement, and innovative visual and creative communication grounded in local contexts and living traditions.
Projects are developed and finalised based on alignment with CASCADE research and programme priorities, flagship initiatives, and the specific research needs of each Living Lab region. All projects are time-bound and outcome-oriented, ensuring focused field engagement and deliverable outputs. Fellows are mentored by faculty and experts from across the Somaiya ecosystem, with key guidance provided by regional leads and principal investigators at each Living Lab, ensuring strong grounding in both academic rigor and field relevance.
"Our focus is on building lasting change by uniting research, local communities, and stakeholders to co-design solutions. This empowers communities and bridges science with society, theory with practical and needs with solutions for sustainable development."
REACH 2026 Begins on: July-Aug, 2026
