November New Horizon Europe project to study climate change impacts on coastal pathogens

€10m funding to determine impact of climate change on environmental pathogens causing health risks 

University of Galway is partnering on a new €10m Horizon Europe project to examine the impact of climate change on health risks due to pathogens in the environment, specifically in coastal waters.

BlueAdapt – 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. The project 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. 

Professor Marc Neumann, Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and BlueAdapt’s Principal Investigator said: “BlueAdapt presents a unique opportunity to investigate emerging disease risks in our coastal waters. We will investigate policy responses, including early warning systems, and estimate expected benefits of adaptation actions.”

Professor Dearbhaile Morris, Professor of Antimicrobial Resistance and One Health at University of Galway, said: “Our coastal waters are important for tourism, fishing and recreational activities.  Through BlueAdapt we hope to assess how bacteria and viruses in our coastal waters respond to different climate change scenarios and understand better the potential impacts for human health.” 

Dr Sinead Duane, Lecturer in Marketing J.E School of Business and Economics at University of Galway, who is part of the University of Galway One Health team said: “Testing and monitoring are key ways to improve and maintain the quality of our coastal waters, however how we interact with our coastal waters also plays a role. 

“Through the development of behaviourally enhanced smartphone app technology, Blue Adapt will deepen our understanding of coastal water users behaviours and attitudes to exposure pollution events. This information will help develop targeted interventions in the future. This app will capture how users respond to warnings of pollution events in real time.” 

BlueAdapt is a partnership between University of Galway, the Basque Centre for Climate Change, University of Exeter, Charles University, University of Warsaw, Deltares, CMCC, EuroHealthNet, Bangor University, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, University of the Basque Country and ThenTryThis. 

BlueAdapt is funded under European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101057764 and by UKRI/HM Government.

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