Summer School Planetary Health 2024
Call for Application is closed!
We welcome
- 35 international participants with diverse professional backgrounds - past participants were from the fields of:
- public health
- nutrition
- pharmacology
- medicine
- physiotherapy
- education
- biogeochemistry
- midwifery
- anthropology
- geography
- veterinary medicine
- dentristry
- health promotion
- psychology
- health economics
- nursing
- environmental studies
- biology
- economics
- and more!
- from various countries
(in the past from Germany, Italy, Poland Austria, Kenya, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Gambia...)
We will share perspectives from Eastern Africa as well as Europe and explore different global as well as local challenges in the context of climate change and other planetary boundaries. By applying a planetary health lens the aim was to identify solutions for mitigation and adaptation relevant in European and African contexts but also beyond.
Why do we offer our Summer School on Planetary Health?
Our well-being is heavily dependent on healthy and resilient ecosystems, however, the impact of human disruptions on earth and climate change is severely affecting all living species. Planetary Health is studying these interactions, asking for collaboration across disciplines to address climate change and to develop and apply strategies to safeguard our health.
The Summer School does not only aim at educating participants on planetary health concepts and the interconnections and interdependences between human health, the environment and ecosystems but focuses on teaching how to acquire practical skills to address planetary health challenges. It is is a solution-oriented, transdisciplinary event willing to contribute to societal change.
Therefore, developing an own project idea tackling a self chosen planetary health issue is a core element of the course. Its intention is to empower participants, and to increase their confidence in taking transformative action.
The summer school offeres a mix of educational methodologies and activities inside and outside the classroom with local and international experts, empowering participants to become agents of change and develop their own projects for transformative change. The aim of the summer school is to help students gain and develop knowledge, attitude, skills and confidence.
The aim of the summer school is for students to
- explore different topics from a planetary health perspective, such as nutrition, biodiversity, agriculture, mobility, sustainable health care, heat and urban planning, ethics, and many more
- get inspired by case studies in a variety of settings
- develop analytical and communication skills to engage with different stakeholders and trigger change
- develop their own ideas and projects & exchange and network with other participants
- develop their own transformative potential and become an agent for change in climate change mitigation, adaptation and planetary health whereever they study, work, and live.
The Summer School is organized by the University and the University Hospital of Würzburg, the Catholic University for Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS) Mwanza, Tanzania and the University of Eldoret (UoE), Kenya in cooperation with the German Alliance Climate Change and Health e.V. (KLUG) and the Else Kröner Center Würzburg-Mwanza. It is part of the project SOPHEA (Strengthening One Health and Planetary Health In Eastern Africa), a project running 2022-2025 with many different (educational) activities in Eastern Africa, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Find all the programme's details here.
To gain a deeper understanding of planetary health we recommend to have a look at the final report of the Lancet Commission on Planetary Health from 2015 and yearly updates of the Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health
We also strongly encourage you to participate in our webinar series in June/July !
In previous years, the webinar series was part of the Summer School, but we have now decided to offer the webinar series before, to allow more time for project work inside the Summer School. It is of importance to familiarize yourself with the major concepts before you come in September, and partipicipating in the webinar series is a great opportunity!
Application is closed!
Participation is free of cost, including lunch and refreshments during breaks and expenses for excursions.
As seats are limited, we reserve the right to select participants based on the applications. We have to raise a cancellation fee of 80 Euros for cancellations after August 1st, in order to be fair to those people on the waiting list.
We are trying to minimize the carbon footprint of our summer school as best as we can. We discourage you from flying to the summer school if you can prevent it, as airplane travel is associated with a huge amount of carbon emissions. The summer school is primarily aimed at participants from all over the world currently residing in Europe, other educational activities of the SOPHEA project take place in Eastern Africa or online. However if you still decide to fly, we encourage you to compensate for the carbon emissions, find more information here.
From Würzburg Main Train Station to the University Hospital Würzburg
After your arrival at Würzburg Main Station, the university hospital can be reached within 15 minutes by tram. After leaving the station building, keep to the left to get to the tram stop "Hauptbahnhof Ost". At the tram stop watch out for tram "Line 1 or 5" heading to "Grombühl". Trams usually arrive every 5 min on weekdays and every 10 min on Saturdays. For more detailed information about the tram schedules, look out for information at the tram stops. To get to the Lehrklinik at the University Hospital leave the tram at tram stop "Uni-Klinikum Bereich D". Then turn right into Josef-Schneider-Straße and go a bit downhill. You will see the main gate (Josef-Schneider-Str. 2) at the opposite side of the street. Once you have passed the car barriers keep walking straight through the small gate and still straight until you find the entrance to building D5 on your right.
You will be responsible for your accomodation in Würzburg, you can find some options here. One inexpensive option among others is the youth hostel in Würzburg. If you would like to get in touch with other participants to look for joint accomodation after you have been accepted for the Summer School, and agree for us to share your contact information with other participants, please indicate this in your application.
Free lunch will be served as well as refreshments during the breaks, on some nights dinner will be included.
Watch this 10-minute video from our colleagues the Planetary Health Alliance at John Hopkins University for a short introduction to the concept of Planetary Health:
