Research and Innovation in Climate Change, Health, and Equity

Given the breadth and complexity of climate-related impacts on human health, new and innovative mechanisms to support research and solutions are needed to address climate-related health risks and to better preserve and protect human health, well-being, and equity.

Due to the siloed nature of research funding for both human health and climate change, new opportunities to support cross-disciplinary ideas and partnerships are needed to catalyze the field and accelerate the pace of innovation. Importantly, there is a need to correct the historic global imbalance in climate and health research and strengthen research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. Climate and health research must be radically collaborative, locally-led, and provide long-lasting, real-world solutions.

For these reasons, the Grand Challenge seeks to: support transformative ideas and solutions; engage and inspire interdisciplinary researchers and innovators to work at the intersection of climate and health; accelerate translational science to drive implementation and scale-up practice; and stimulate more significant funding and investment into the field from the public and private sectors.

There will be two major workstreams within the R&I project:

• a climate and health research agenda and supporting web portal that identifies and fills critical evidence gaps in climate and health research
• regional research and innovation hubs that aim to disrupt the impacts of climate change on human health and equity.

The research agenda will identify and fill critical evidence gaps in climate and health research by mapping existing research efforts, identifying opportunities and evidence gaps in climate change and health research, facilitating dialogue among experts from a range of disciplines including community representatives, researchers, and policy makers, and catalyzing additional research funding. We endeavor to help diverse audiences understand the existing evidence base around climate change, related health impacts, mitigation, and adaptation strategies.

To support capacity building and bidirectional knowledge exchange, the regional hubs will elevate and support research and innovation led by local partners and facilitate uptake and translation to policy. The regional hubs will leverage a partnership approach that centers researchers and innovators in low-income countries and brings together diverse stakeholders within and across regions to share learnings, best practices, solutions, tools, and resources to address climate change impacts on health.