Planetary health is among new categories used in research. It helps to describe the current state of the environment and climate in relation to the wellbeing of the population. Scientists from the UW’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modeling are also involved in this kind of analyses. MOSAIC – the international project in which they are involved has received funding from the Horizon Europe programme.
The Multi-site application of Open Science in the creAtion of healthy environments Involving local Communities (MOSAIC) project has received funding in the “Environment and health – Planetary health” competition of Horizon Europe. It will be implemented in a consortium of fifteen institutions from seven countries (France, Poland, Portugal, Kenya, Brazil, USA, and Colombia). The project leader is the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement). Researchers will focus on finding methods and tools to support different communities in building resilience to changing planetary conditions related to climate change, exploitation of natural resources or decline in biodiversity.
The Polish part of the research is led by Prof. Aneta Afelt from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modeling (ICM), the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with an IT team led by Łukasz Dumiszewski.
Cooperation with local communities
The MOSAIC project involves working with local communities in low- and middle-income countries living in transboundary zones.
“They struggle with the negative effects of environmental degradation that affect their health and wellbeing. They are also in particular socio-political contexts that increase their level of vulnerability,” Dr Aneta Afelt explains.
The researchers assume that local communities are best equipped to interpret and use complex information about their environment. Their knowledge and skills can be used to design and implement solutions to help them adapt to environmental and socio-political changes.
MOSAIC aims to help design and implement open information systems that support transboundary communities to understand the impact of the environment on their wellbeing, build health-promoting environments and influence public policies and decisions.
Open Science
MOSAIC is based on the Open Science principles of creating knowledge and using the data gained with the public.
“The research will be conducted in two bioregions – East Africa and the Amazonia – which are particularly affected by climate change, extreme weather events and land degradation. Cooperation with local communities is expected to culminate in the implementation of the practical solutions, but also to contribute to the development of science as well as research methods and techniques,” Dr Aneta Afelt says.
“When I started working with local communities ten years ago and training local public health workers in Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia in the use of simple spatial analysis tools and reporting of abnormal morbidity, a project like MOSAIC was a dream about being able to integrate the achievements of science and its target beneficiaries,” the researcher says.