Fernando Ruiz Peyré studied Geography in Argentina and did his PhD at the University of Innsbruck in 2014. The North-South-Dialogue scholarship, financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation supported his doctoral work and helped him build early collaborations beyond Europe. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Innsbruck (2011-2020) and, since 2020, is researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research in Innsbruck. In 2023 he became Junior Group Leader focusing on Social-Ecological Transformations in mountain regions, work that connects European research with partners and practitioners across the Global South. The working group focuses on analysing the challenges for mountain societies in the current “multiple crises” (climate change, globalization, technological changes, economic and demographic crisis, etc.) and the requirements for transformations towards sustainability.
The project Highlands.3 (H3) – “Collective Approach of Research & Innovation for Sustainable Development in Highland” – a five-year global collaboration for research and innovation was an EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie project designed to advance Inclusive Sustainable Development in Highlands (ISDH). The project combined long-term secondments (research exchange) with eight month-long Research & Innovation Sessions (R&IS) in different mountain areas of the world. R&IS gatherings were immersive, place-based exchanges where researchers, local authorities, civil society and businesses co-designed questions, mapped challenges and co-produce comparative datasets that fed into the project’s decision-support platform. These sessions created a common language across disciplines and regions while the individual secondments allowed scholars and practitioners to stay longer on site, deepen their research in the specific topic and strengthen their relationship with the hosting institution. Over five years, H3 connected highland cases across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. The final session in mid-June to July 2025 spanned Galicia (Spain) and Portugal, closing a cycle of eight R&IS that also included the Alps, the Andes, Carpathians, the Balkans, Malawi, Cape Verde and Vietnam. This mix of regions fostered North-South and South-South exchange on practical issues like land-use transitions, nature-based livelihoods and climate resilience, translating research into options local actors could use.
Since 2020, Fernando Ruiz Peyré coordinated the H3 consortium of 45 institutions and more than 100 participants, scientist and practitioners, helping them to align methods and ensure that insights travelled both ways – from European institutions to community initiatives in the Global South, and back again. That bridging role, rooted in his ÖAD-supported beginnings, shaped H3’s emphasis on inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and on training early-career researchers through exchanges and co-teaching. The project concluded successfully on 31 August 2025, leaving behind a stronger network, shared comparative datasets and a practical platform to support decisions in mountain territories. The perfect basis for the Highlands.4 project, that is in preparation.
