The European Commission and research funders from around the world have launched an alliance to coordinate investment in the study of climate change and health.
The Multilateral Initiative on Climate and Health Research Funding was announced on 13 November at the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey. The Commission launched it with the Wellcome Trust and public research funders from five continents.
The initiative is intended to help organisations identify shared research priorities and align their funding. A Commission-funded secretariat is due to begin work in January 2027. The launch did not set out a total amount for joint research investment or a timetable for research grants.
Bringing research funders together
Climate-related health risks cross national borders, but the evidence needed to respond can differ from one place to another. The new alliance aims to give funders a way to discuss those needs, share knowledge and look for opportunities to work together.
Research in the field is growing, but remains fragmented and concentrated in a small number of countries. The alliance is intended to improve coordination across regions and help close gaps without unnecessarily duplicating work. It also aims to make research more useful to the people who could put its findings into practice.
UK Research and Innovation, the South African Medical Research Council, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council and the Philippines Department of Health are among the public bodies that helped design the initiative. The Commission and Wellcome worked with nine national public research funders in all, while consulting a wider group that included researchers, grant recipients and the World Health Organization.
Formal membership is intended to be open to organisations that fund climate and health research. The alliance also plans to engage with research institutions, international organisations, policy groups, industry and other relevant networks.
What the secretariat will do
The permanent secretariat is to be hosted by four organisations involved in the design process: France’s National Research Agency, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, Canada’s International Development Research Centre and Romania’s research funding agency UEFISCDI.
It will be supported by a European Commission grant running until December 2029. The support was designed to help establish the initiative’s governance and initial work plan, as well as provide administrative and technical assistance and facilitate communication between participants.
The alliance has five broad goals: strengthening the global research community, making better use of funding, improving the quality and relevance of research, creating clearer routes from findings to impact, and supporting research that is prioritised, trusted and open.
Those are objectives for the work ahead, rather than evidence that new projects have already delivered results. Aligning research funding is also different from committing a single new sum to be divided among applicants.
Why the evidence matters
Climate pressures can affect health in several ways. Extreme heat can cause illness, while floods and changing rainfall can affect food and water supplies. Changes in temperature and rainfall can also alter conditions for mosquitoes that transmit disease. The risks depend in part on local circumstances and the ability of health services and communities to respond.
Research can help decision-makers understand which populations are most exposed and assess measures intended to protect them. It can also help connect climate information with health planning. In a 2021 survey of health ministries, countries identified insufficient evidence as a leading barrier to putting national health and climate plans into effect.
The new initiative is not the only effort bringing funders together on climate and health. A separate philanthropic coalition launched in 2025 has reported awarding more than $225 million to programmes covering areas including extreme heat, air pollution, infectious diseases and data systems. Wellcome is involved in both, but that money is not a funding total for the new research alliance.
For the new group, the next stage is to turn its shared aims into a work programme and build relationships beyond its initial design group. Its eventual contribution will depend on how funders coordinate their priorities and how the evidence generated is used.
