The international conference brings together scholars from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) and beyond to present state-of-the-art research on the theme of water and livelihood from mountain perspectives.

The Annual Meeting, on the other hand, gathers senior representatives from existing and potential Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) members to discuss ways to strengthen the network and foster regional collaboration in higher education, research, and training in and for the HKH.

These two back-to-back events, co-hosted by Sichuan University , are parts of the network strengthening and capacity building activities supported by the HUC grant from The World Bank under its South Asia Water Initiative (2017-2018).