Kauê de Sousa

Kauê de Sousa is a Brazilian applied ecologist and agricultural researcher whose work bridges ecological science, digital innovation, and participatory methods to support sustainable livelihoods and climate resilience in biodiverse regions. Kauê joined the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in 2016 as a research assistant at the Costa Rica office. Currently, he works as Scientist II for the Digital Inclusion Lever, based in Montpellier. He also serves as an Associate Professor at the Universitetet i Innlandet, Norway.

With a background in forestry (Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Brazil), an MSc in tropical agroforestry (CATIE, Costa Rica), and a PhD in applied ecology and biotechnology (Universitetet i Innlandet, Norway), Kauê has consistently focused on integrating data-driven tools with local knowledge systems to address environmental and agricultural challenges. Over the past decade, his work has concentrated on agrobiodiversity and climate adaptation in smallholder farming systems across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He has developed and scaled participatory research approaches, particularly the tricot (triadic comparisons of technology options) method, working closely with stakeholders to generate field-based evidence on crop performance and climate adaptation.

With a deep commitment to farmer-centred innovation and sustainable development, Kauê continues to work at the intersection of science, technology, and policy to transform how knowledge is created and used in agriculture. He actively supports open science, and most of his code and workflows are publicly available on his team’s GitHub page. Kauê is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.