Objective
Environmental heating is a growing challenge for our community and problems are already experienced by millions of Europeans during the summertime and aggravated during heat waves or occupational settings. In addition to the well-known health risks related to severe heat stress, a number of studies have confirmed significant loss of productivity due to hyperthermia. Even if countries adopt the EU proposal for limiting global CO2 emissions, climate change and its associated threat to public health will continue for many decades. Thus, it is crucial to develop strategies to mitigate the detrimental health and societal effects of these environmental changes.
Stakeholders such as policy makers and the private sector usually lack the technical capabilities or facilities to conduct R&D activities at the level of excellence required for such development. European research institutes have the capacity to conduct the R&D necessary to develop solutions. However, they often lack the capacity to transform these solutions into policies and assess their health, economic and social benefits. The HEAT-SHIELD project will create a sustainable inter-sector framework that will promote health as well as productivity for European citizens in the context of global warming. The project will produce a series of state-of-the-art innovative outcomes including: (i) appropriate technical and biophysical research-based solutions to be implemented when the ambient temperature poses a health threat or impairs productivity (ii) a weather-based warning system with online open access service that anticipates the events that may pose a threat to workers’ health; (iii) scenario-specific policies and solutions aimed at health promotion and preventing loss of productivity (iv) implementation of the formulated policies and evaluation of their health, economic and social benefits. Consequently, the HEAT-SHIELD project provides a multi-sector approach to address the serious environmental challenge.
Fields of science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringthermodynamic engineeringheat engineering
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark
See on map
Participants (19)
1000 Ljubljana
See on map
38221 Volos
See on map
WV1 1LY Wolverhampton
See on map
50121 Florence
See on map
8600 Dubendorf
See on map
2595 DA Den Haag
See on map
22100 Lund
See on map
3003 Bern
See on map
LE11 3TU Loughborough
See on map
1000 Ljubljana
See on map
50122 Firenze
See on map
N1 9UZ London
See on map
4099-002 Porto
See on map
6802 EJ Arnhem
See on map
1700 Nicosia
See on map
3312 Prebold
See on map
1060 NICOSIA
See on map
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
See on map
28033 MADRID
See on map