A team from the University of Lincoln came first in the Climate and Health section of the Wellcome Data Science Ideathon which took place from 10-12 July at the Wellcome Institute in London. This was a competition involving 24 academic teams and almost 100 researchers from institutions across the United Kindom supported to investigate the link between climate and health. The team, led by Dr Harriet Moore (right) also included Prof Edward Hanna (School of Geography), Dr John Atanbori (School of Computing), Prof Mark Gussy (LIIRH) and Prof Niro Siriwardena (CaHRU).
The team are researching the link between methane and health (respiratory and mental health) emergencies building on work led by Dr Moore over the past two years. This addresses Welcome’s strategic priorities around mental health, infectious disease and climate and health and their wish to bring researchers from different disciplines together to tackle this important global challenge.
By coming top in the teams competing for the climate health challenge the team were eligible to bid for a Wellcome grant and awarded £100,000 to begin researching this area of international importance, which the WHO regards as the greatest current threat to human health. The climate and health programme seeks to significantly increase our understanding of the effects of climate change on human health and define the interventions and policies that can respond to the climate crisis in a way that protects and improves human health.