Integrating climate-related exposures into the human exposome and characterising its changes in response to climate change

Expected Outcome: This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination “Living and working in a health-promoting environment”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that are directed at, tailored towards and contributing to most of the following expected outcomes: Researchers, policymakers, healthcare practitioners and the public have a more comprehensive understanding of the human exposome and the interactions between climatic, environmental and socio-behavioural factors, supported by FAIR [1] data linking these exposures to disease and health outcomes. Researchers, governments, policymakers, social care services and healthcare practitioners have improved knowledge on the links between the climatic, social, lifestyle and environmental factors of the exposome and global health burden, supporting their efforts to adopt the exposome approach to identify and address relevant health impacts. The public has access to the latest information on the influence of global environmental exposures on health, enabling the adoption of health-promoting, climate-resilient and nature-positive behaviours. Scope: The exposome is the totality of exposures (and their interactions) experienced by an individual throughout their lifetime, including chemical, physical, biological, nutritional and psychosocial factors, from conception onwards. Many of these factors originate in the environment, including climate-related exposures such as extreme heat, heightened air pollution or drought. Climate change may amplify or interact synergistically with other better-established exposures, dynamically altering the human exposome and its health implications. Despite this, climate factors remain underrepresented in large-scale human exposome studies. Research activities under this topic should strengthen the use of the exposome approach to study global exposures and generate evidence on their health implications. Proposals should focus on integrating climate-related factors into exposome research and understanding how the exposome changes in response to direct and indirect climate exposures. Moreover, research activities should be multiscale and multidisciplinary and account for the complexity and multifactorial nature of health determinants and the most pressing unmet medical needs in relation to environmental degradation and disrupted ecosystems. Proposals should include climate-relevant social determinants of health as part of their proposed activities. More specifically, research acti…