Planetary Health Cluster meets in Brussels to strengthen collaboration and drive policy impact

On 3 June 2025, the Planetary Health Cluster participated in a high-level event organised by the European Climate-Health Cluster at the European Parliament in Brussels. The event brought together leading researchers and decision-makers to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the intersection of climate change and public health. The roundtable discussion, titled Protecting Health in a Changing Climate, highlighted growing scientific evidence on climate-related health risks and called for coordinated and integrated action across Europe.

Vanessa Harris, representing the SPRINGS project and currently co-coordinator of the Planetary Health Cluster, spoke on behalf of the Cluster. She emphasised its role in advancing understanding of the complex links between environmental degradation and human health, and called on policymakers to closely follow the recommendations emerging from the Cluster’s research and intervention work across Europe and in low-income countries.

“By sharing evidence with policy makers and understanding their priorities and constraints, we can make pragmatic policy recommendations that are feasible, protect public health and are based on cutting-edge knowledge. This dialogue is especially critical as climate and health challenges grow,” stated Harris.

🔗 Read more about the roundtable discussions here.

Bridging clusters: exploring synergies between Climate-Health and Planetary Health

In the afternoon, members of both the Climate-Health Cluster and the Planetary Health Cluster came together for a dedicated session to strengthen mutual understanding of their projects, objectives, and anticipated outcomes. A central theme of the discussion was how to increase collective political impact.

Participants reflected on key questions: How can we, as a Cluster, be more effective in driving change within the evolving political landscape? How can scientific evidence be better translated into actionable policies?

Future meetings are planned to continue this dialogue and identify common ground for collaboration on the complex challenges of climate and health.

Internal collaboration: a day of shared learning and vision building

The following day, the Planetary Health Cluster held a full-day internal workshop focused on learning, exchange, and developing a shared vision. The morning began with a “project speed dating” session, where each project discussed its work and answered key questions, including:

• How are local communities engaged in your research?
• Are early warning systems integrated, and how do they address health risks?
• Does your project include intervention development and evaluation?

This format helped surface common methodologies and approaches, and identify opportunities for joint actions and future collaboration.

In the afternoon, the Cluster hosted its first Thematic Workshop, which was dedicated to reaching a shared understanding of the concepts of Planetary Health and Open Science. Participants explored these topics through the lenses of theoretical frameworks, implementation challenges, and potential impacts, while also reflecting on their own positions in relation to these themes.

“Our first thematic workshop laid the groundwork for a shared understanding of Planetary Health and Open Science. The discussions and exchanges that we had were rich and will help us shape a joint knowledge paper and policy brief — strengthening our common voice as a cluster to inform future health and climate policy, ” said Blesic.