The Belmont Forum’s Collaborative Research Action ‘Climate, Environment, and Health 2’ has recommended eleven diverse projects for funding. Among them is a project focused on water governance and child health that is supported by the MRI through our collaboration under Conectate A+.
The Belmont Forum launched the Collaborative Research Action (CRA) ‘Climate, Environment, and Health 2’ (CEH2 2023) led by the National Science Foundation in April 2023. Its aim is to support transdisciplinary and convergent research approaches that evaluate and address issues at the nexus of climate, environment, and health, foster collaborations among the research community across several regions, and contribute to knowledge advances and policy change at the global level.
Applicants were invited to submit research proposals addressing at least one of three themes:
- Decision-Science of Environmental Behavior and Implementation
- Food, Environment, and Biological Security
- Climate Risks to Ecosystems & Populations
42 countries are participating in this CRA.
The CRA received 40 eligible proposals in September 2023. Following evaluation by the Panel of Experts, eleven projects have been recommended for funding to their national funding agencies. The projects are diverse in their focus, reflecting the complex challenges at the interface of climate, environment, and health. The eleven consortia will receive funding worth circa €15.53 million in total from the funding agencies involved in the CRA.
The proposals recommended for funding, in alphabetical order (countries involved):
- ARMS Resilience | ARMS Resilience: Strengthening reefs and food systems against a climate-induced famine (US, UK, France, Madagascar)
- AWARE | AWareness Against Health ThReats of Climate ChangE (US, Vietnam, Nepal, UK, South Africa, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, India)
- BEDMAC | Decision making in the built environment as a public health intervention for malaria control in a changing climate (US, UK, Kenya, Tanzania, Panama, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda)
- BioARC | Biorepositories for Adaptive Resilience to Climate (US, Belize, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador)
- ComDisp | Community-Centered Modeling of Housing Related Health Disparities (US, UK, Norway, Vietnam, Ecuador, Turkey)
- COPE | Combined impact of heat and air pollution exposure on human health in India: Evidence and solutions (Norway, India, UK, US, Australia, Netherlands)
- IMPHRESS | Improving Heat-Health Response in South Asia (India, France, US)
- IPON-Complex climate-health-emergencies (CCHEs) | The Indigenous Peoples Observatory Network (IPON): Understanding and responding to complex climate-health emergencies (Peru, Uganda, UK, US, India, Italy, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Argentia, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Nambia, Ghana, South Africa, Germany)
- Schisto-preparedness | Decision support systems to improve schistosomiasis preparedness and control in the era of global changes. (US, Senegal, Cote d’Ivore, Brazil, UK, Switzerland, Kenya)
- SOLVE | System adaptation for OneHealth under cLimate change for Vulnerable groups and Ecosystems (France, Nepal, Norway, Colombia, India, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Ethiopia)
- YAKU | Integrating Water Governance and Child Health: A Cross-Sectoral Approach to Reducing Under-5 Mortality (Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Tunisia, US, Morocco, Brazil, Algeria, Switzerland)
This project receives funding from the MRI in the Andes region as part of our collaboration under Conectate A+.
The final funding decisions will be made by each individual funding organization for the funding requested from them by the recommended applicants.
Background
The Belmont Forum is a group of funding agencies from around the world that support transdisciplinary, globally-representative research groups and coproduction/participatory methods to address various global environmental change topics. Topics are addressed through Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs).
Conéctate A+ is a research collaboration hub in the Tropical Andes and Central America region focused on climate change, ecosystems, and health in view of sustainable development. Conéctate A+ functions as a ‘network of networks,’ drawing on the existing research collaborations, networks and partnerships coordinated and led by the MRI, the University of Zurich, and CONDESAN. Conectaté A+ is gratefully supported by the swissuniversities Development and Cooperation Network (SUDAC) ‘Clusters of Cooperation in the Global South’ (CLOCs) programme.
This article is an amended version of the original press release published on The Belmont Forum’s website here.
Photo by Jonathan Ford.
