From 17 to 28 August 2026, researchers and students from different disciplines came together in Rotterdam and Heidelberg for the Summer School on climate change, One Health and infectious diseases. Across two weeks, participants explored how climate and ecosystem changes can influence infectious disease risks, and how these risks can be studied from different perspectives, such as climate science, ecology, epidemiology, virology and public health. The Summer School was organized by the Erasmus MC and Universität Heidelberg, and funded by the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center (PDPC) and COST-LILY.

The first week in Rotterdam featured a combination of lectures, fieldwork and site visits. Participants learned about for example climate change, infectious disease and several One Health case studies. On Wednesday, students visited the Eendragtspolder to learn about this large scale living lab experiment and all the employed field methods, including rodent and bird trapping, bioacoustics, sampling for eDNA and more  – undeterred by heavy rainfall during the day.

Students also explored climate adaptation and nature-based solutions in Rotterdam, including a city walk with Rotterdam’s Weerwoord programme on Thursday. Sessions on stakeholder engagement, co-creation and science communication highlighted the importance of working across disciplines and with people outside academia.

The second week in Heidelberg shifted the focus from data collection to analysis and modelling. Participants worked with climate, ecosystem and vector data and explored different modelling approaches. They also took part in a workshop on phylogenetic analyses of arboviruses and visited Heidelberg Zoo to discuss biodiversity, conservation and wildlife monitoring.

Throughout the Summer School, participants worked in groups on capstone projects, bringing together the methods and perspectives covered during the programme. The two weeks concluded with presentations of these projects, giving participants the opportunity to share their work and receive feedback from the other participants and supervisors.

“What was really nice about the summer school is that we had these field- and lab-based portions, but we also had a big focus on modeling in the second week. On top of that, we also learned how to integrate those skills together, and learned how all of the knowledge can be translated into concrete actions for policymakers”, said one of the participants.

The PDPC provided six LMIC grants to researchers that were selected from over 1000 applications. These grants enabled researchers from all over the world to join the Summer School, for example by covering travel costs. “I applied for the Summer School because I thought it could really enrich my work and open my horizons to the things you can do, such as the techniques and methods that people are using”, said Mariana from Mexico. “Thanks to the LMIC grant, I could fly to Europe to join.”

Thomas from Brazil added: “The grant also allowed me to come to the Summer School. I would like to implement some of the knowledge that I learned here in Brazil and Latin America. I think it is very important to share knowledge and have an established partnership between the global north and south.”

All in all, the Summer School brought together 30 participants from all over the world to learn from different disciplines and build new connections. It was a strong example of how collaboration across climate science, ecology, infectious disease research and public health can contribute to understanding and preparing for health risks in a changing world.