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

该奖项为参与由55个国家通过贝尔蒙特论坛发起的全球变化研究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的联盟，致力于支持跨学科方法来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，加速提供最迫切需要的国际研究，以消除可持续发展的关键障碍。每个伙伴国在一个联盟中为它们的研究人员提供资金，以减轻对跨越国际边界的资金的需求。这种方法有助于有效利用国家资源，支持对全球相关主题的优秀研究，最好通过多国方法解决，同时认识到全球挑战需要全球解决方案。伙伴机构在这一合作研究行动中共同努力，提供了支持，以培养由自然（包括气候）、卫生和社会科学家以及来自全球各地的利益攸关方组成的全球跨学科研究团队，以增进对气候、环境和健康途径的了解，从而保护和促进健康。这些项目将为气候变化和变异对健康的影响提供重要的新认识；1)食物的质量/数量，2)长期暴露于热量和湿度的增加/变化，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。该奖项为美国研究人员在至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中合作提供支持，以增加我们对气候、环境和健康之间复杂联系和途径的认识，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如何影响人类健康。暴露于极端高温和干旱造成的热应激与不利的健康问题密切相关。孕妇具有独特的脆弱性，特别是在低收入和中低收入国家，即使在没有热应激的情况下，怀孕往往也不稳定。妊娠期热应激的长期影响会延续到成年期，影响健康和经济前景。孕产妇和新生儿健康是卫生服务提供的一个关键领域，目前的全球卫生战略非常需要证据转化和风险评估。该项目将重点关注撒哈拉以南非洲地区，该地区正在发生并预计将继续出现大幅变暖和干旱加剧的情况。它将评估各种低成本干预措施的有效性，以减轻热负担，并为非洲国家适应计划和气候服务方案提供关键知识，这些计划和方案很少优先考虑极端高温的健康风险。该项目将通过将天气和气候数据集以及预测与出生队列、临床试验、出生登记和人口研究站点的数据联系起来，量化热暴露的影响。这些成果将使地方和国家一级的广泛利益攸关方受益，包括地方社区、政府、卫生服务机构以及地方和国家决策者。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.