Americas Hub
Americas Hub
Collaboration Strategy
Many countries in the Americas region face environmental changes affecting ecosystems, human mobility and public health. The Amazon highlights risks to biodiversity, carbon regulation and dependent communities. Ocean warming impacts coastal regions and marine life, while stronger El Niño events bring droughts and floods. Recurrent wildfires in California, show the growing health burden of climate hazards. These trends intersect with major migration corridors from Central to North America that further shape social and political dynamics, including what is currently at play in the United States.
The CliMigHealth Americas Hub is hosted by Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz Rio De Janeiro) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Its work will focus on environmental monitoring on infectious diseases and heat island effects in major cities, planetary health education and sustainable health systems.
During the UN Climate Summit (COP30) in Belém, the hub was officially launched during a two-day seminar at Rio De Janeiro, in the presence of CliMigHealth’s leadership team. During this exchange, regional priorities and interuniversity research preferences were established, including a working agenda for interregional cooperation within the broader network. Together with the Africa hub, they will engage in the Climade Network, which Oswaldo Cruz co-founded with Stellenbosch University.
Projects and activities
- Develop a regional strategy in accordance with the outcomes of the UN Climate Summit COP30 (hosted in Belém, Brasil).
- Joint Fiocruz – Ugent project on social determinants of health (SDH) and policy targeting SDH in the context of climate mobility in Brasil.
- Co-develop educational material on planetary health for medicine students at collaborating universities.
- Joint collaboration with the ClimigHealth Africa Hub on activities with the Climade Network.
- Develop research projects on blue ocean health in the context of human and animal health.
Aims
- Establish the Americas Hub.
- Align the main outputs with the CliMigHealth Network strategy for 2025-2029 and beyond.
- Convene regional members working on the nexus to produce regionally focused research, public engagement activities, and educational outputs.
Collaborators
Dr. Clarice Rodrigues
Researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies, Oswaldo Cruz Institute. Nurse and civel servent at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Professor Wim Degrave
Senior Researcher in Laboratory for Applied Genomics and Bioinnovations. Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Collaborators: Professor Marcia Chame – Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) and Polina Koriukina – Ugent
