It is a great honour that the INTERSECT proposal – “Intersect – Integrating risk for vectors and vector-borne diseases to climate change adaptation” – that we had submitted on September 20th, 2023 for evaluation in the Horizon Europe call received a Seal of Excellence. It was a great honour and responsibility to coordinate such an important research proposal in such a timely and promising field for Ecodevelopment, with twenty-two (22) participants from nine countries for a total amount of 5.5 million Euros.
Within the preparation of the proposal, case studies were designed for nine European countries located in five biogeographic regions (Mediterranean, Continental, Alpine, Northern and Pannonian). The main idea behind this proposal was the lack of consideration of the impact of different planned policies in relation to climate change and vector-borne diseases in the central relevant platform of the European Union Environment Agency Climate-ADAPT. In particular, of the 58 policies listed on the platform, only one policy made reference to mosquitoes (and this was for the EYWA scheme, in which Ecodevelopment is known to be one of the main partners), whereas 38 of these policies should have included mosquito-borne diseases in their design.
The research proposal, which was written and submitted within six months, helped the company to gain significant experience as a Horizon project coordinator and, most importantly, to establish new and strengthen existing partnerships with prestigious research centres, such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts “ECMWF”, the German National Research Foundation (Fraunhofer Institute for Bioinformatics), the UNESCO International Centre for Theoretical Physics “ICTP”.
