CLIMOS

The main objective of CLIMOS is to improve the knowledge, surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases in Europe and neighboring countries. In particular, sand fly-borne diseases, such as leishmaniasis and phleboviruses, are of major public health concern. CLIMOS aims to provide a better understanding of those climatic and environmental factors that contribute to the spread of sandfly-borne diseases, as well as to reduce model uncertainty to improve forecasting of their actual and potential spread, and to relate it to socioeconomic aspects that improve decision making. The project will provide an early warning system, along with a series of decision support frameworks for more accurate climate and health modeling, as well as a better understanding of areas of distribution and action.

To achieve this, CLIMOS will integrate EcoHealth and One Health approaches to develop new animal and human infection risk markers, identification of risk zones, climate and environmental modeling of the incidence and spread of sand flies and SFBDs (sand fly-borne diseases), along with a socioeconomic analysis of losses and benefits to individuals and society, facilitating SFBD adaptation measures and Early Warning System with decision support.

CLIMOS started on 1 September 2022 and will last for 3 years with a budget of approximately 9 million euros. This work will be carried out by a consortium of 29 institutions from 16 different countries, of which the Universidade Nova de Lisboa will be in charge of coordinating the efforts. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Research and Innovation programme under Grant agreement No. 101057690.

Predictia's contribution to this project is focused on the following activities:

• Participation in the scientific-technical coordination of the project
• Climate, environmental and health modeling, including climate projections
• Co-development of the early warning system
• Evaluation and validation of results