Authored by Tim Taylor.

Over the past 15 years, the European Centre for Environment and Human Health has become increasingly embedded in international research partnerships and delivering impact in Europe and beyond.

Our international ambitions were clear from the start – with Mike Depledge and Lora Fleming banging the drum in their networks to raise the profile of what was, and is still, a highly innovative research centre based in the deep South West of England. Our advisory board included experts from the World Bank, EEA, and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, reflecting the desire to spread the message of environment and human health far and wide.

Europe was literally in the name of our centre, so it is little surprise that we became active in responding to European funding calls. Early successes included engagement in the BASE FP7 project starting in 2012 – where our team worked on climate change and health issues in a wider project led by the University of Aarhus.

We led our first successful Horizon 2020 grant with the BlueHealth project in 2016. This project gave the Centre a heightened profile in Europe which we’ve since built on: our work on blue spaces and health has been the focus of several European funded projects (some of which, like the Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe project, we also led). And with the UK rejoining Horizon Europe as a full member, we can look forward to engaging once more as a principal partner in such work.

Beyond Europe, the Blue Communities project (led by the University of Plymouth and funded by UKRI) took the Centre’s research to Southeast Asia. Later work on food systems in small island states has extended our reach into Fiji, the Philippines, and the West Indies.

In terms of education, Sarah Bell’s joint course on climate change and disability with Uganda and Norway stands out as an attempt to do things differently and reach wider international audiences on environment and health issues.

The links between the Centre and the rest of the world have continued to expand through partnerships with other major institutions, including strong ties to the University of Queensland and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Our early career researchers (including PhD students) have been able to benefit from these collaborations – either through joint studentships or through co-funding of research activities. Such engagements have led to interesting work comparing European and Australian perspectives on marine plastics and human health and work on antibiotic resistance in Hong Kong’s coastal waters.

Strong impact has also been had on international environment and health policy, with Will Gaze and the antimicrobial resistance team feeding into UNEP strategy on AMR and work on biodiversity and health helping to support the Budapest Declaration on Environment and Health.

In the past 15 years, the European Centre for Environment & Human Health has certainly grown into an internationally leading research hub – with major international funding driving each of our research themes.

Our interdisciplinary and collaborative approach has been the foundation of this success and it’s amazing to see how widespread these partnerships have become.

I think we have gone well beyond what could have been hoped when the Centre was founded.