Potential synergies between climate change and health projects funded by the Belmont Forum and Horizon 2020
In an analysis of 15 climate change and health projects we identify areas for potential synergies between the projects. We find that the ENBEL project can add particular value in terms of synthesis of research findings, dissemination and knowledge mobilisation.
By Annechien Dirkje Hoeben and Miriam Stackpole Dahl
A key aim of the “Enhancing Belmont Research Action to Support EU policy-making on climate change and health” (ENBEL) project is to identify synergies and potential areas of collaboration between existing research projects on climate change and health. This could offer major benefits for the field and optimize the use of resources.
To this end, one of the first key outputs of the ENBEL project is a report summing the commonalities between climate change and health projects funded by the Belmont Forum and the EU and identifying potential areas where we can perform common activities across projects and generate shared outputs. The report is based on a survey among relevant climate change and health projects conducted in March 2021 and document review. Particular attention was given to activities and opportunities relevant in Africa as this forms an important part of the ENBEL focus.
The ENBEL consortium brings together and includes researchers from six research projects funded by the Belmont Forum Climate Environment and Health Collaborative Research Action as well as four EU funded Horizon 2020 projects, one other Belmont Forum project and one ERA4CS project. The report covers the 12 projects represented in ENBEL as well as the additional three Belmont Forum climate environment and health projects not represented in the ENBEL consortium.
Potential for common activities and shared outputs
The ENBEL consortium sees potential to perform common activities, generate shared outputs and subsequently co-produce a series of tailor-made knowledge products on the interconnection between climate change and health together with our partners and research projects on climate change and health.
The analysis brought forward that, despite the fact that the research topics, settings and project teams are diverse, the individual project teams can capitalise on commonalities and potential synergies between projects. In addition, enthusiasm for collaboration prevails amongst the partners setting the stage for rich collaboration.
The limited coherence in the overall body of work makes it difficult to conduct joint activities, but also especially important. On the one hand, the timelines of the projects are not conforming which limits the use of common study tools, cross-project analyses and dissemination activities. On the other hand, this provides an opportunity for projects that are in their early stages to learn from the experiences of more advanced projects. We identified several topic areas, research methods and study populations which are common to several projects. Many projects focus on heat and health, opening up opportunities for a range of joint activities in this critical area.
There are also overlaps in research methods used. As an indication, several projects apply similar geospatial analyses techniques and health economics methods. Social science research is also common among the projects, providing opportunities for cross-learning around understanding the perceptions of communities. Moreover, there may be important lessons to be learnt from co-design and community-based research activities which are common to many projects.
How ENBEL can facilitate collaboration and joint activities
In conclusion, a successful capitalisation of potential synergies requires a robust communication process between ENBEL and the relevant projects. To this end, the ENBEL team can:
Foster mutual learning and communication between projects.
Assist in outreach and dissemination activities, such as organising a large joint event with policymakers that cover a range of Belmont/H2020 projects.
Secure raw data on health outcomes from climatic exposures through their network of partners.
Identify synergies in educational content that can feed into the teaching materials of different partners.
Gaps in research activities covered by the 15 projects
Though the projects included a wide range of topics, settings and research methods, some areas have received limited attention. Some key areas noted include:
There appears to be little emphasis on how to address health systems’ responses compared to documenting the increased need for it.
The climate change and variability-related health topics mental health, violence, migration and allergens have only been sparsely in the covered Belmont Forum and Horizon 2020 projects to date.
The projects seem to pay limited attention to advancing research methodology in the field of climate change and health.
Merely a few projects focus on health co-benefits and ways to build linkages between different sectors involved in climate change. As a result, few projects focus on the role of the health sector to drive mitigation efforts.
Although important to assess the efficiency of adaptation measures, few projects specifically assess different ways of measure the impacts of climate change on health.
The report “Potential synergies between climate change and health projects funded by the Belmont Forum and Horizon 2020” was produced by the team of ENBEL work package 3 on research syntheses led by Matthew Chersich (University of Witwatersrand) and Ilona M. Otto (University of Graz).