Personalized, Real-Time Health Impact of Climate Change and Pollution
Convergence Health & Technology Flagship
Understanding how climate change and pollution affect health, from cells to society
Climate change and environmental pollution increasingly affect human health worldwide. Rising temperatures, air pollution and other environmental stressors are associated with higher risks of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological and autoimmune conditions. At the same time, environmental exposure and vulnerability can differ strongly between individuals and communities.
The Flagship brings together researchers from Erasmus MC, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam to better understand how environmental changes affect health on an individual level. By combining bioengineering, wearable sensing, public health research, economics and data science, the programme develops technologies and analytical approaches that help monitor and understand environmental health effects in real time from tissue-level biological responses to behavioural and societal impact.
What the programme works on
The programme studies environmental health effects across multiple levels: from biological processes inside the body to individual behaviour, population health and urban environments.
Researchers develop organ-on-chip models to study how tissues respond to pollutants and environmental stressors under controlled laboratory conditions. In parallel, the programme explores wearable technologies and sensor systems that can monitor biomarkers, exposure and behavioural responses in daily life.
These technological developments are combined with public health research, health economics, behavioural analysis and ethical perspectives. A key aspect of the programme is the integration of expertise across medicine, engineering, public health, economics and policy to better connect environmental exposure, health effects and possible interventions.
The programme operates across three interconnected domains:
The Flagship connects environmental health research directly to public policy, urban planning and preventive healthcare strategies. Researchers work together with municipalities, public health organizations and policymakers to better understand how climate change, pollution and the built environment affect health and well-being in daily life. Within the programme, researchers collaborated with the municipalities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam on studies into healthy and vital cities, combining local well-being data, environmental exposure modelling and evidence analyses on interventions such as urban speed limits and traffic-related measures.
The programme also organized policy-oriented events and expert dialogues, including the symposia Rethinking Healthy and Sustainable Mobility and Urban Speed Limits: A Holistic Overview of Real-World Evidence. These initiatives helped translate scientific findings into broader policy discussions on urban health, mobility and environmental exposure.
Beyond policy dialogue, the programme explores how wearable sensing and real-time monitoring technologies could support preventive healthcare, telemonitoring and public health interventions for vulnerable populations affected by environmental stressors.
Partners & collaborations
The Flagship brings together researchers from Erasmus MC, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam across fields including dermatology, public health, health economics, engineering, biosensing, urban policy, environmental modelling and ethics. The programme combines expertise ranging from organ-on-chip systems and wearable biosensors to public health analytics and urban policy evaluation.
The programme collaborates with municipalities including Rotterdam and Amsterdam on urban health and mobility-related research, and engages with public and societal partners such as RIVM, DCMR and patient organization Huidfonds. Industry collaborations support the translational potential of the programme, including partnerships with Imcomet and LEVELS Diagnostics on biosensing and single-molecule technologies.
Education & talent development
The programme actively involves bachelor, master and PhD students through interdisciplinary research projects, joint supervision and cross-institutional teaching activities across the three Convergence institutions. The Flagship also contributes to education and training at the intersection of environmental health, technology, public health and preventive healthcare, helping prepare a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers and professionals.
Looking ahead
In the coming years, the Flagship aims to further validate and integrate its technologies in real-world and clinically relevant settings. Planned next steps include clinical validation studies for wearable biomarker sensors and skin-based monitoring technologies, as well as further development of organ-on-chip platforms for studying the effects of pollution and environmental stress on human tissue.
The programme is also working towards stronger integration between tissue-level research, wearable sensing and population-level health analyses. Future plans include collaborations with municipalities including Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague to further study how environmental exposures, health behaviour and urban policy interact in daily life.
In parallel, the Flagship is exploring translational and valorization routes through collaborations with industry and technology transfer offices, while also investigating future opportunities for health technology assessment, regulatory pathways and broader implementation.
Now, more than ever, we must understand how our changing environment affects our behaviour and health and how we can mitigate its negative impact to live long and healthy lives.
