Belmont Forum Climate, Environment and Health Collaborative Research Action: current projects and future perspectives

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The Belmont Forum, a partnership of over 30 funding organizations, international science councils and regional consortia across five continents, is committed to advancing international transdisciplinary research and providing knowledge for understanding, mitigating and adapting to global environmental change. Since its establishment in 2009, the Forum has supported 134 research projects and represented scientists from over 90 countries. METHODS: In 2019, the Belmont Forum launched a Collaborative Research Action (CRA) to strengthen and expand the current scientific understanding of links between climate variability and change, the environment and health impacts. The geographical scope was global and welcomed proposals that considered challenges in low- and middle-income countries. RESULTS:The ‘Climate, Environment and Health’ CRA supports nine transdisciplinary projects that address one of more of the following topics: 1) heat and health, 2) climate-sensitive infectious disease and 3) food systems and nutrition, with the aim to improve the understanding of the complex pathways between climate variability, the environment and health, and to protect and promote human health and well-being in the face of climate challenges. An important research output is to foster the use of scientific information and climate-related decision support tools to better inform planning and enhance resilience. CONCLUSIONS:This talk will introduce the research projects and outline future research perspectives, considering the current gaps in knowledge and research priorities. KEYWORDS: Climate, Environmental epidemiology, Exposures, Policy and practice, Natural disasters, Socio-economic factors