Center for Transformative Infectious Disease Research on Climate, Health and Equity in a Changing Environment (C-CHANGE)

Some of the greatest human health impacts from climate change are mediated by infectious diseases. Billions are at risk annually from malaria alone, and viral pathogen spillover events and spread of vector-borne diseases (VBD) are increasing due to climate change. In response to these urgent threats, Cornell University

and the University of Pretoria have newly partnered to create the Center for Transformative Infectious Disease Research on Climate, Health, and Equity in a Changing Environment (C-CHANGE). To have the greatest health impacts, we must change our research paradigms from reactively focusing on responding to outbreaks

to proactively understanding the complex social and environmental determinants that shape risk and promote outbreaks. As a whole, C-CHANGE hypothesizes that community-engaged research that integrates human, reservoir and vector behavior, climate, land-use, human and animal health, and vector/pathogen genomic

evolution datasets, will enable future creation of predictive epidemiological models and generation and rigorous testing of preventative interventions. Working toward these goals, C-CHANGE’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) will intersect with and support the aims of CHANGE’s Administrative Core, Living Evidence Data Core,

Project 1 Research Team (climate extremes and land use changes result in wildlife-to-human viral spillover events), and Project 2 Research Team (community-based early warning system for climate-sensitive VBD can promote human health), and will specifically work to foster collaborative, community-engaged research teams

that generate hypotheses and extend projects, and generate and use data to improve infectious disease prevention and community resilience. The CEC will build upon robust community engagement seeded by C- CHANGE members, and augment approaches and outcomes under the co-leadership of Meredith-ESI and van

Wyk. Over the next 3-years, to build reciprocal community engaged research relationships for the future, the CEC will (1) Promote and enhance community engagement in guiding C-CHANGE’s work by establishing community-imbedded action research partnerships, and creating standard processes and venues to support

communication of community ideas, issues, needs, and concerns to C-CHANGE’s members to inform and guide research activities that address community needs; (2) Aid communities in using [C-CHANGE] data and research to spur systems change by advancing partner communities’ scientific literacy in climate and one

health, including via sharing data and C-CHANGE research results into plain, action-focused language; and (3) Establish benefits and scalability of the CEC approach by applying mixed methods developmental evaluation to document processes, resource needs, outputs, and outcomes derived from CEC actions. Anticipated

outcomes include at least 6 active hypothesis-driven CBPR projects across 2 continents, and documentation of expanded capacity and process/ systems change showing how research is being used by communities to improve infectious diseases prevention, and resilience against the complex impacts of climate change.