Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Climate, heat and maternal and neonatal health in Africa

该奖项为参与一个由55个国家发起的全球变化研究计划通过贝尔蒙特论坛竞争性选定的项目的美国研究人员提供支持。贝尔蒙特论坛是一个研究资助组织联盟，专注于支持以跨学科方法应对全球环境变化的挑战和机遇。它的目的是通过协调和调动国际资源，加速开展最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除对可持续性的关键障碍。每个伙伴国都在一个联合体内为其研究人员提供资金，以减轻跨越国际边界的资金需求。这种方法有助于有效地利用国家资源，支持对具有全球相关性的主题的优秀研究，最好是通过多国方法来解决，认识到全球挑战需要全球解决方案。在这一合作研究行动中，伙伴机构提供支持，培养全球自然(包括气候)、健康和社会科学家以及来自全球的利益攸关方组成的全球跨学科研究团队，以提高对气候、环境和健康途径的理解，以保护和促进健康。这些项目将对气候变化和变异性对以下方面的健康影响提供至关重要的新理解：1)食物的质量/数量；2)长期暴露在高温和湿度的增加/变化中；3)一系列传染病的分布和发病率的变化以及新病原体的出现。该奖项支持美国研究人员在由至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的财团中开展合作，以增加我们对气候、环境和健康之间复杂联系和途径的了解，以帮助解决社会面临的复杂挑战。该项目旨在了解和量化极端高温对人类健康的影响。暴露在极端高温和干旱下造成的热应激与不利的健康问题密切相关。孕妇有独特的脆弱性，特别是在低收入和中低收入国家，那里的怀孕往往不稳定，即使在没有热应激的情况下也是如此。怀孕期间热应激的长期影响会延伸到成年，影响健康和经济前景。孕产妇和新生儿健康是提供保健服务的一个关键领域，在当前的全球保健战略中，大量需要进行证据转换和风险评估。该项目将把重点放在撒哈拉以南非洲，那里正在发生显著的变暖和干旱，预计将继续下去。它将评估各种低成本干预措施的有效性，以减少热负担，并为非洲的国家适应计划和气候服务计划提供关键知识，这些计划很少将极端高温的健康风险列为优先事项。该项目将通过将天气和气候数据集、预测与出生队列、临床试验、出生登记和人口研究网站的数据联系起来，量化高温暴露的影响。结果将使广泛的地方和国家层面的利益相关者受益，包括当地社区、政府、卫生服务机构以及地方和国家决策者。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 55-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.Working together in this Collaborative Research Action, the partner agencies have provided support to foster global transdisciplinary research teams of natural (including climate), health and social scientists and stakeholders from across the globe to improve understanding of climate, environment and health pathways to protect and promote health. The projects will provide crucial new understanding into the health implications arising from the impacts of climate change and variability on; 1) the quality/quantity of food, 2) chronic exposure to increases/changes in heat and humidity and 3) changes in the distribution and incidence of a range of infectious diseases and emergence of novel pathogens. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries to increase our knowledge of the complex linkages and pathways between the climate, environment and health to help solve complex challenges that face societies. The project seeks to understand and quantify how extreme heat impacts human health. Heat stress caused from exposure to extreme heat and aridity are strongly associated with adverse health issues. Pregnant women have unique vulnerabilities, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries, where pregnancy is often precarious, even in the absence of heat stress. Long-term impacts of heat stress in pregnancy extend into adulthood, affecting health and economic prospects. Maternal and neonatal health is a critical area of health service delivery and there is a substantial need for evidence translation and risk assessment in the current global health strategies. The project will focus on sub-Saharan Africa where substantial warming and increased aridity is occurring and expected to continue. It will assess the efficacy of various low-cost interventions to reduce heat burden and provide critical knowledge to national adaptation plans and climate services programs in Africa which rarely prioritize health risks of extreme heat. The project will quantify impacts of heat exposure by linking weather and climate data sets, and projections with data from birth cohorts, clinical trials, birth registries and demographic study sites. The results will benefit a broad range of local and national-level stakeholders, including local communities, government, health service agencies, and local and national decision-makers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.