We are pleased to share our new article, “Lessons from a multi-country research project on climate and health policy integration,” published in the Journal of Climate Change and Health.
The article reflects on our experiences coordinating a multi-country research initiative examining how climate and health are integrated into policy in six geographies: Brazil, the Caribbean, Germany, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the project involved 225 high-level stakeholder interviews to better understand the current status, barriers, opportunities, and strategies for advancing integrated climate–health policymaking.
Additional publications from this project—including an international synthesis report and national-level reports for each of the study locations—are available here.
Key takeaways:
- Success depended on strong collaboration with the research partners, whose contextual knowledge was essential for making the research both feasible and policy-relevant in each location.
- Multi-country, interdisciplinary research under tight timelines creates significant logistical and coordination challenges, underscoring the need for clear decision-making structures and realistic planning from the outset.
- A “hub and spoke” knowledge coproduction model enabled the right balance between collaborative decision-making and centralized leadership.
The article explores how these lessons can inform the design of international research collaborations, particularly those aiming to generate policy-relevant evidence at the intersection of climate change and health.