General objectives
Emergence and transmission of pathogens that cause infectious diseases is an increasing problem in Europe, fuelled by the upward trends of key drivers associated with global environmental change, including anthropogenic climate change, travel and tourism, trade, but also antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and societal and environmental transformations. To address these new and evolving challenges, a paradigm shift is required, in which animal, human, and environmental change interactions are addressed from an EcoHealth and One Health systems perspective. IDAlert project aspires to overcome existing disciplinary divides by integrating climate change, EcoHealth and One Health perspectives to tackle the emergence and transmission of pathogens and spread of zoonotic pathogens.

CMCC role
CMCC is involved mainly Workpackage 2 “Indicators for monitoring climate-induced infectious disease risk and emergence” where it leads the task 2.5 “Quantify interactions between social inequalities and infectious disease risk”.
In Workpackge 6 “Projecting infectious disearse risk under climate change adaptation and mitigation Scenarios” CMCC leads tasks related to a) cost-benefits of future health risk indicators of climate change impacts integrating public health adaptation scenarios; b) macro-economic analysis of climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures; and c) investigate the additional stress on health systems due to climate change with a focus on improving the resilience of these systems across Europe.

Activities
IDAlert project aspires to overcome existing disciplinary divides by integrating climate change, EcoHealth and One Health perspectives to tackle the emergence and transmission of pathogens and spread of zoonotic pathogens. To this end, IDAlert convenes some of the most prominent groups and individuals in Europe working in these fields in academia, policy, and practice, to create a truly transdisciplinary consortium. Empirical methods will be combined with expert assessment to co-create indicators, early warning systems, policy options, and evaluations of adaptation and mitigation strategies. This process is defined by stakeholder needs assessment, collective prioritization, inclusive decision making, participatory research, and shared knowledge generation. It involves diverse stakeholders from different disciplines, sectors, and level of decision authority and is based on mixed methods from both natural and social sciences using mutual quality control of scientific rigor, social robustness, and practical relevance. Such an approach is currently rare in community outreach, research, and policy implementation, and IDAlert intends to fill this void.

Expected results
IDAlert aims at the following outcomes:

a) Development of innovative indicators and monitoring mechanisms to assess the health-relevant outcomes of climate policies and actions

b) Development of predictive models and early warning systems for exposure and health impacts of climate change based on transparent assumptions and architecture

c) Development of tools for health impact and cost-benefit assessment of climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures

d) Investigation of health co-benefits and unintended consequences of climate adaptation and mitigation policies

e) Demonstration of the validity of tools and methods in policy-relevant case studies

f) Determination of the societal implications of climate change on health systems, including occupational health, and development of adaptation measures

g) Development of training materials and guidelines to educate relevant actors in citizens’ daily life on climate change health impacts and to facilitate adaptation of health systems and practices

h) Delivery of FAIR data on positive and negative health impacts of climate change, including impact on groups at higher risk or vulnerability

Twitter: @IDAlertproject
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/idalert/