CLIMOS

As climate change drives temperature increases, tropical diseases are spreading north, emerging for the first time in parts of Europe which lack the policy and public health infrastructure to adequately respond to this emergent threat. CLIMOS responds to this challenge by designing early warning systems (EWS), bespoke AI solutions to monitor the spread of sandflies which carry tropical diseases, helping policymakers and public health officials anticipate disease transmission through predictive analytics. 

The project has established trapping sites across Europe, Turkey, and Israel to track the spread of sandflies in different climates and seasons. This data powers the EWS, which generates long, medium, and short-term regional forecasts of sandfly populations. These forecasts are presented in an accessible user interface which enables officials, veterinary authorities, and citizens to prepare for periods of higher disease risk. Project partners are also engaged in outreach initiatives to raise awareness of these diseases and enable efficient policy responses and prevention campaigns. 

Trilateral Research’s role in the project includes:  

• Monitoring the ethics, privacy, and data protection impacts of the project’s AI technologies and providing ethical guidance for the safe deployment of AI-driven public health strategies 
• Leveraging Trilateral’s past experience in the climate, public health, and crisis response domains to conduct a socio-economic analysis of climate change adaptations 
• Managing the data collected in the project to power bespoke AI for disease surveillance, ensured it is stored, shared, and protected in alignment with FAIR principles 
• Co-developing recommendations to policymakers via a series of workshops with stakeholders 
• Supporting media outreach initiatives to boost awareness of sandfly-borne diseases among the public, policy, and scientific communities 
• Analysing the market for AI-based predictive analytics tools for public health and delivering a business plan to ensure CLIMOS outputs are adopted after the project ends 

CLIMOS will: 

• Advance the development of early warning systems to monitor and facilitate responses to climate-driven diseases, pushing forward the use of AI solutions for public health management and disease surveillance 
• Quantify and mitigate the impact of sandfly-borne diseases (SFBDs), enabling a robust public policy response 
• Improve understanding of the impact of climate change on the spread of SFBDs, and integrate findings into AI solutions, policy recommendations, and public outreach initiatives to increase resilience to emerging health risks 

Blog: Weather and disease – closer than we think 

Blog: The promise of AI-driven Early Warning Systems in public health 

Project website: https://climos-project.eu/

Project Dates: 1 September 2022 – 31 August 2025 

Funded by the European Union. UK participants in Horizon Europe Project CLIMOS are supported by UKRI grant numbers 10039289 (Lancaster University) and 10038150 (Warwick University). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority nor UKRI can be held responsible for them.