CNRS Spotlight: How international collaboration reinforces our health strategies

Countries from the North and South met for the One Health Summit, taking place in Lyon from April 5th to 7th. There is something of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)1  about this event but in the field of health. Like the IPCC, the One Health Summit aims to establish tangible, science-based recommendations. Numerous organisations, heads of state and stakeholders from civil society attended this summit which was initiated by a scientific coalition which the CNRS belongs to. The ‘One Health’ approach is now considered essential to deal with the risk of pandemics like Covid-19 and also environmental crises. The CNRS, whose own roadmap for health is informed by the One Health approach, is aiming for impact in this area.

• 1The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body that assesses the extent, causes and consequences of ongoing climate change.

Interdisciplinary ambitions

The CNRS is active in all disciplines1  and thus has considerable resources. Its geographers, chemists and geophysicists monitor pollution levels in Strasbourg’s parks and schools in the Île-de-France region. Ecologists, ethnobiologists and geochemists work on mapping out pathways to healthy food that is 100% organic or free from risks of cadmium lead poisoning. Biochemistry, physical chemistry and microbiology specialists are pooling their expertise to work on the complicated challenge of PFAS ‘forever chemicals'. Doctors and sociologists are working together to find the right solutions to antibiotic resistance and develop more targeted therapies. Biologists, virologists and anthropologists are sharing tools to deal with the Chikungunya epidemic on Réunion Island or to monitor emerging zoonotic diseases in the France's Camargue region.

This CNRS knowledge provides guidance for public decision-makers who can draw on collective scientific expertise2  on issues such as the puzzle of microplastics. Citizens are also key stakeholders and are of course included in the process. For example, the CNRS is steering the 2026 Year of Health, a major initiative aimed at sharing research with the younger generations, from nursery school children to students in higher education. Taken together, all of this work underpins our collective health.

• 1The CNRS Mission for Cross-cutting and Interdisciplinary Initiatives (MITI) harnesses this transdisciplinary potential to support risk-taking, disruption and innovation.
• 2The CNRS Mission for Scientific Expertise (MPES) coordinates collective scientific expert reviews (ESCOs) which provide state-of-the-art scientific assessments of major topics.

Innovating with society

Now, all that remains is to take action. The CNRS is supporting industry in its efforts to reduce pollution with one of the first steps being to detect PFAS ‘forever chemicals’. This can be easily achieved thanks to the portable detector developed by the Grapheal start-up, a spin-off from CNRS research that was selected for financing by the European Innovation Council's (EIC). The second step is to purify water by using sustainable materials like Carb’eau, a plant-based activated carbon ‘made in France’, supported by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) and jointly set up by the CNRS, the Bordet Group and Suez. The third step of this process is to reinvent products to avoid the use of pollutants as far as possible. For example, a CNRS researcher has invented a membrane-free electrolyser, a hydrogen production process that completely eliminates the use of PFAS. The CNRS is supporting this promising idea for industry through its pre-maturation programme.

Alongside this, the CNRS is also innovating in collaboration with the French public authorities responsible for safeguarding public health. A project developed in collaboration with the Strasbourg Eurométropole and the DREAL1  of France's Grand East region is using artificial intelligence and ‘low-tech’2  sensors to track plastic debris in urban rivers. The CNRS has also developed new mathematical models to monitor the dynamics of viruses in the waters of the Seine in collaboration with the greater Paris Sanitation Authority (SIAAP).

• 1Regional Directorate for the Environment, Development and Housing
• 2A simple, sustainable technique that can be adopted by the broadest possible audience.

Preparing for the future 

Of course there is also a need to develop alternatives which is the aim of the 2.Sèvres Living Lab's work on the future of a grain-growing region. Ecologists and biologists are working alongside farmers and beekeepers on testing solutions intended to stop the loss of biodiversity and improve human health. Scientists are also taking action in urban areas, as is the case of the 'Urbamosson' project in Montpellier which is developing an alternative, more environmentally friendly approach to urbanisation. ‘Nature-based’ solutions seen as socially, economically and ecologically beneficial are at the core of a broader research initiative overseen by the Solubiod Priority Research Programme and Infrastructure (PEPR1 ) which is jointly steered by the CNRS. The work of this PEPR is based on 11 Living Labs2  in a variety of coastal, urban and agricultural areas. 

In the future, certain technology projects are very likely to come into their own, like the Ecopalladium projectwhich uses the roots of a ‘pollution-removing’ plant to extract palladium, a contaminant found in soils that is also used to manufacture medicines. The dual advantage of the project is that pharmaceutical sovereignty is enhanced while decontaminating. This is also the rationale underpinning the Catfoam project which is developing a process for manufacturing foams for the industrial sector that are capable of breaking down microplastics. Both projects are part of the CNRS’s Risky Research programme which supports particularly ambitious technological research.

• 1The PEPRs, launched in the framework of the France 2030 plan, aim to reinforce the position of French research in scientific fields seen as crucial to technological, economic, societal, health and environmental transformations.
• 2‘Living Labs’ are collaborative research structures that bring together citizens, researchers and local stakeholders.

International dialogue

International collaboration is of course essential in the health field as countries from the northern to the southern hemisphere all face common challenges. Certain discoveries made in France are now shedding light on issues in other parts of the world, like the UNIVOC project which is studying the effect of microalgae on respiratory irritation. Other regions seen as ‘hotspots’ for emerging infectious diseases and threats to biodiversity can also serve as laboratories for the rest of the world. This is the case of Indonesia which hosts the HealthDeep International Research Laboratory (IRL) founded by the CNRS, which studies the impact of factors like climate change to devise solutions. This laboratory acts as a bridge with major regional and international organisations (ICN, FAO, WHO, UNDP, etc.) and also manages the international coordination of the Prezode Priority Research Programme and Equipment (PEPR) which is at the heart of France’s Global Health Strategy. 

The CNRS works with many countries around the world, with each contributing part of the solution. Brazil, Chile and France face similar problems with the proliferation of toxic algae threatening aquaculture activities. Scientists from these three countries are pooling their complementary expertise in functional genomics and sequencing in the framework of the EcoHealth4Sea research project. Similarly, scientists from European, African and American research organisations are working together in the FANE-MATH-PE project, which develops mathematical models for environmental and health issues. The CNRS is reinforcing such exchanges of expertise through a Joint Research Programme (JRP) involving theses developed by duos of PhD students from different countries who are encouraged to travel through the programme's support. Finally, scientific projects in the French overseas territories which are particularly affected by One Health issues are carried out in collaboration with neighbouring countries.