Neel Kamal Chapagain is a Professor of Architecture at Kathmandu University in Nepal, currently working to set up an International Centre for Interdisciplinary Heritage Studies. He was previously a Professor at Ahmedabad University where he led the Centre for Heritage Management which also hosted the secretariat of the Asia Pacific Higher Education Network for Safeguarding ICH (APHEN-ICH) from 2022 to 2024. He works with communities and organisations including UNESCO in promoting the ICH discourse in Nepal. He advocates for integrated heritage discourse and practice involving multiple UNESCO instruments on nature, culture including ICH, World Heritage, and the Memory of the World programme.