BlueAdapt – New Horizon Europe project to study climate change impacts on coastal pathogens
The impact of climate change on health risks associated with pathogens in our coastal waters is the topic of BlueAdapt, a new €10 million Horizon Europe project. BlueAdapt, with full name “Reducing Climate Based Risks in Blue Environments: Adapting to the climate change impacts on coastal pathogens”, involves 12 institutes from across 10 countries in Europe. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including microbiologists, epidemiologists, economists, climate scientists and policy specialists in order to investigate the complex interactions between climate change, pathogen dynamics and human health.
“BlueAdapt presents a unique opportunity for us to investigate emerging disease risks in our coastal waters. We hope to be able to improve the understanding of how bacteria and viruses in coastal zones will respond to changes in our climate and how this in turn may impact the health of the European population. We will investigate policy responses, including early warning systems, and estimate expected benefits of adaptation actions.” (Prof Marc Neumann, Research Professor at BC3 and BlueAdapt’s Principal Investigator)
“Our coastal waters are important to our society in terms of providing space for recreation, food to our tables and supporting a range of industries. It is important we understand how bacteria and viruses will respond to changes in our climate and society – so we can better plan. Through a series of case studies, BlueAdapt will focus on change in different areas of Europe and look at different options for responding to these emerging threats.” (Dr Tim Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Environmental and Public Health Economics at the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health)
BlueAdapt is a partnership among BC3, the University of Exeter, Charles University, the University of Warsaw, the University of Galway, Deltares, CMCC Foundation, EuroHealthNet, Bangor University, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, University of the Basque Country and ThenTryThis. BlueAdapt is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101057764 and by UKRI/HM Government.
BC3’s activities include the development of an extended One Health framework for system thinking and knowledge integration methodologies and the case study application of the Biscay Bay of Plentzia, Spain.