Fiocruz launches Climate, Environmental and Health Data Platform

A megastructure for studies on the interaction between health and climate, considering the Brazilian continental territory and the vast diversity of climate and ecosystems, with socioeconomic, geographic, and modeling data working together to answer unprecedented scientific questions. This is the great promise of the Cidacs Clima – Climate, Environmental and Health Data Platform project, which was launched on Thursday (9/21) at the Salvador Technology Park.

The project will investigate the effects of climate and environment on the health of the Brazilian population (photo: Wilimar Branco/Wiki Commons) 

Funded by the Wellcome Trust Foundation, from the United Kingdom, the project will investigate, over the next few years, the effects of climate and environment on the health of the Brazilian population, taking into account the social context of our country. In partnership with other national and foreign research institutions, this initiative will place Brazilian research at the epicenter of studies on the relationship between climate and health.

To mark the beginning of construction work on the Platform, Brazilian physicist Paulo Artaxo, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), held the conference What are the challenges of the global climate issue in Brazil?. On that occasion, the opening panel was made up of the president of Fiocruz, Mario Moreira; the director of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Ministry of Health, Agnes Soares; the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Liam Smeeth; the vice-dean of Research and Graduate Studies at the Universidade Federal da Bahia (Ufba), Ronaldo Oliveira; and the coordinator of Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia, Mauricio Barreto.

Members of organized civil society, researchers, authorities, and journalists were also invited. Paulo Gadelha (Agenda 2030 Fiocruz), Luiz Augusto Galvão (Cris/Fiocruz), Nelson Gouveia (USP), Rochelle Schneider (European Space Agency), Elizabeth Brickley (LSHTM), Diosmar Filho (Iyaleta Research Association), Sin-Chan Chou (Inpe), Moacyr Araujo (Rede Clima), Isabel Fletcher (Wellcome Trust), Cristovam Barcellos (Icict/Fiocruz), Thays Lavor (InfoAmazônia), Leonardo Bacelar (Cemaden) and Gervásio Ferreira (Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia) were also present.