Dr Tamara Jackson is an Agricultural Research for Development specialist, leading and contributing to multiple high-impact projects across South and Southeast Asia since 2011. She has spent almost a decade living in the Lao PDR and Nepal, with projects funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Department of Education (DE). She has worked on farming and food systems projects that spanned a range of goals from transforming farming and marketing systems, building capacity in critical agricultural skills and fostering collaboration across sectors and at multiple scales. Between 2021 and 2025, she successfully secured over $9.1 million in competitive funding ($6.3 million as Project Lead), with a strong focus on agricultural research in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Tamara has a background in the water-energy-food nexus, as a way of framing and understanding food systems. She has undertaken applied research on these issues in the context of agriculture and food security both in Australia and internationally. Her PhD research in Australia explored water use efficiency, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission relationships for different irrigation systems. She previously coordinated a program of research for ACIAR that aimed to maximise agriculture’s contribution to sustainable food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Bangladesh, India and Nepal, for improved food, energy and water security.Tamara currently leads the ACIAR funded Rupantar project, which aims to enable transformation of smallholder food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. With international and national partners, the project is exploring the processes and practices (technical options, scaling interventions, policy settings and implementation) that can be applied to achieve sustainable, efficient, diversified food systems at scale in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. A recently completed project funded by DE on Developing Critical Agricultural Skills Courses in India developed and piloted a demand-driven set of future skills courses for Indian agriculture, approved by national regulators, aligned with existing programs, and embedded within effective institutions. It included courses on Carbon Farming and Green Livestock Management. This initiative was supported by strong partnerships between Australian and Indian actors across the agriculture vocational education and training (VET) systems, creating pathways for collaboration. Tamara has postgraduate qualifications in Applied Hydrology and Research Management. Her current research interests include food systems transformation, sustainable groundwater development, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.