Authored by prof Conny Guell.

The Centre has always taken an active role in delivering training associated with its research – from innovative planetary health education for medical students, to inspiring professionals to work on health issues through our MSc programme, and supporting the next generation of researchers on their PhD programmes.

But we’ve also sought to extend that learning far beyond the university’s educational boundaries. This ambition has been driven by the increasing need for multisectoral action to address some of the world’s most wicked problems: the complex determinants of ill-health, and the triple crisis of climate change, nature degradation, and environmental pollution.

And so, over the last few years, we’ve targeted that outreach at a major leverage point in the decision-making process: policymakers and practitioners.

Our aim has been to help this group of influential individuals gain substantial knowledge and understanding outside their disciplinary backgrounds, embrace systems thinking, and forge professional partnerships across a range of remits and responsibilities.

To do that, we first developed an intensive autumn school course aimed at national ministry-level decision makers. This included reaching out to the 53 member states of the World Health Organization’s European Region, including 20 countries classified as low or middle income, such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Tajikistan.

Delivered in 2025 as part of our role as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Natural Environments and Health, the autumn school was co-designed and delivered with Matthias Braubach and Sinaia Netanyahu at the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in Germany.

Building on the success of this targeted course, for 2026 we’ve set our sights even higher.

In preparation for this year’s 2026 UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 17), we are launching a brand-new masterclass series on nature and health, which we will be delivering to the more than 700 delegates from across Europe and Central Asia.

Beginning this week, the three-week course will showcase the latest scientific evidence on the positive impacts of natural environments on health, including opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity renewal, and addressing health inequalities.

Led by experts from the both the Centre and WHO, the masterclass will focus on key international policy frameworks, conceptual approaches to mapping interconnections between biodiversity and health, public health gains from nature-based solutions, approaches to valuing nature and its benefits, and the contribution of social sciences to the development and evaluation of environment and health interventions.

As we’ve learned over our 15 years of championing this exciting area of research, a first step to supporting multisectoral and interdisciplinary ambition requires the vision to build an understanding of the interconnection of environment AND health at the highest level, and it is exciting that our role as WHO Collaborating Centre gives us the platform to spread the word.