Collaboration between science, medicine, policymakers, and societies is essential for tackling major health emergencies and pandemics, highlights Brigitte Autran of Sorbonne Université and President of the French Committee for Monitoring and Anticipating Health Risks (COVARS).

Capacity, access, data quality, and ethical issues must be addressed for global adoption of genomic surveillance, highlight Dr Stephen A Morse of IHRC Inc, USA, and Dr Segaran P Pillai of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Giriraj Amarnath from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka, discusses policy considerations for secure, equitable digital Twin Earths that proactively build resilience to extreme weather events.

The Falling Walls Science Summit took place from 7 to 9 November in Berlin, Germany, marking its 15th edition. Falling Walls is a leading international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral forum for science discovery and scientific dialogue among leading scientists and society worldwide. The annual event serves as a catalyst for innovation, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and promoting breakthrough thinking.

Frontiers and the Frontiers Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Falling Walls Foundation, organized two complementary sessions around the climate crisis and planetary boundary science, respectively

International climate change and human rights lawyer, Tessa Khan, and policy advisor, Brook Dambacher, are calling for a rapid and just transition away from oil, gas and coal.

Peggy Rodgers Kalas, environmental lawyer and ocean policy advisor, discusses the recently finalized High Seas Treaty to protect marine life in international waters – and what is required to implement it.

Aleksandra Posarac, former World Bank economist, discusses the slow adoption of the WHO concept of 'human functioning' into medical care and how this could be overcome through its inclusion into disability assessment.  

Prof Rees Kassen, evolutionary biologist at the University of Ottawa and working at the interface between science, society, and policy, considers how evolutionary medicine can overcome a conservative research ecosystem – and so enter into standard healthcare practices and policy development. 

Prof Julian Kinderlerer of the University of Cape Town explores ethical and legal issues around the use of brain organoids that may develop cognitive properties, such as human dignity and rights of both donors and organoids.

Realizing effective scientific collaboration among nations is not an easy task. The trends we identified in the first paper of this series are a snapshot of the landscape of scientific collaboration. Taken together, they shine light on specific areas requiring attention to maximize the benefits of collaboration. While the dynamic nature of research and the complexity of the geo-political landscape makes it challenging to point to any single factor or policy that a country, company, or funder could change to support effective scientific collaboration, some general pathways to supporting international collaboration are clear.

The pandemic has made us aware of the importance of institutional action to protect individual and public health not only in times of crisis. More importantly, the need for preparedness in view of possible future health emergencies. Over the past two years, awareness of the importance of prevention in healthcare has grown. We have realised that health begins before the onset of a disease and presumes the ability to prevent (and predict) the effects of the ecological crisis on our lives..

War has often been used as a metaphor for health and disease, as in the “war on cancer”. However, to my knowledge, the prevention of poor health and premature death has never been used as a metaphor for prevention of war. In this short article, I propose that the principles behind public health models can be useful for preventing and “treating” war.

The Covid-19 crisis has raised many questions about other infectious diseases and ailments that still lack appropriate medical treatments. Many of these questions involve drug discovery and development, both in the private sector and in academic settings. It is common to see questions on social networks and blogs such as, “Is it possible to develop affordable new drugs quickly?”, “Why do so many new drugs seem to come from non-EU countries?” and “What lies ahead?”

Food and energy prices are rising, economies in Europe are stretched due to the lack, or potential future lack, of fuels (particularly gas), food (particularly wheat and animal feed), and fertilisers, along with other materials, such as the metals needed for energy transition or other transition-related needs.

Frontiers Policy Labs spoke with Wim Thiery, an associate professor at the University of Brussels, a climate scientist who uses computer models to project how climate extremes will evolve in the future. Dr. Thiery, who was named one of Europe’s “30 Under 30” by Forbes, is a contributing author on two past IPCC reports and his research is featured in the report on climate change impacts that recently came out.

The EU is revamping its interest to get all member states to increase their Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) from the current average of 2.2% to 3%. The rational for this policy is based on the belief that European technology industries will lag behind those in other countries unless more innovation is generated. Investment (GERD) is seen as a limiting factor and should be corrected. But is the premise for this policy as simple as the equation; money + research= Innovation? I argue that research is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient in the mix required to have better economic outcomes.

There is a long history of government intervention in energy markets. For both political and economic reasons, countries have always subsidized the production of cheap and abundant fossil energy. Over the last hundred years, the availability of inexpensive fossil-fuel energy has been a hallmark of the growth of most countries—including both the industrial growth of the last century and the information-intensive growth of our current era.

In the long term, the principle of solidarity in the accessibility of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and essential medical supplies should drive the global reform of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response protocols. The EU could play a leading role in this process, through the recently established European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

Professor Linqi Zhang,

School of Medicine, Tsinghua University
Chair of Comprehensive AIDS Research Center, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University
Chair of Global Health and Infectious Diseases Center