Society’s ill-prepared response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread suffering and loss. Although pandemics are but one of many emerging health threats, the ongoing tragedy caused by COVID-19 is a clarion call to action for the entire world – to do all we can to prevent emerging health threats from defining our future.
Grand Challenges recognizes the inseparable connections between health and our environment. We do not exist in isolation. People are part of a larger, living ecosystem. Our activities influence the condition of our environment, and the condition of the environment directly influences health and well-being. This interconnectedness poses great risk for human and animal health but can also be harnessed to mitigate those risks.
Emerging health threats are urgent threats to the health and well-being of our planet. They are diseases that have newly appeared in humans, animals, plants, and insects or have existed but are rapidly increasing in number and severity.
Emerging health threats are increasing as a result of climate change, poverty, and limited access to nutritious food and healthcare.
We are catalyzing a new kind of collaboration among experts to work toward a safer future. We recognize the innovative power of UC Davis to understand and prepare for what lies ahead. Transdisciplinary research, education, and service are critical for identifying and mitigating emerging health threats. Building connections across disciplines is essential for developing the diversity of approaches that can prevent these threats.
To facilitate development of products and policies that will strategically and dramatically alter the trajectory of emerging health threats that are expected to have major global impacts in the next 10-20 years.
We need experts to come together to look at the problems and the solutions from new and more comprehensive perspectives. We aim to: develop cutting-edge technologies, devise successful approaches to community engagement, and propose policies and actions that will drive positive change. New treatments and cures must be combined with efforts to prevent risk and disease, as well as with innovative approaches to communicate and inform policy at all levels. Our vision is to achieve health equity for all.
Grand Challenges is accelerating our ability to achieve these goals by removing roadblocks that have slowed development in the past. We intend to mitigate impacts of emerging health threats through new approaches to promote cross-cutting initiatives and roadmaps to accelerate discovery, innovation, and impact.
At UC Davis, now is the time to converge science, reason and political will to prepare for the next pandemic. We are building a collaborative, transdisciplinary network that works together to prevent the next pandemic.
The consortium unites the diverse neuroscience groups at UC Davis with the goal of enhancing well-being for all by increasing our understanding of how the brain’s multiple systems interact with each other, technology, and the world.
A two-and-a-half-day workshop that brought together members of the private, non-profit, public, and academic sectors to build a roadmap for improving our pandemic response.
