Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis begins new role for a major global urban health project

The aim is to provide the evidence needed to help policymakers and governments take action to improve the health of their populations and the planet, in a way that minimises health inequality.

IOM is delighted that Sotiris Vardoulakis, Research Director, will be contributing to the partnership through his involvement in one of the two projects: Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH). The aim is to develop critical evidence on how to achieve the far-reaching transformation of cities needed to address environmental imperatives for population and planetary health in the 21st century.

The programme will use cutting-edge science and systems-based participatory methods to articulate visions of development, help shape policy decisions, and accelerate the implementation of transformational changes for health and sustainability in low-, middle- and high-income settings. CUSSH is led by Mike Davies, Professor of Building Physics and Environment at University College London.

The project is part of Wellcome’s Our Planet, Our Health programme, which seeks to respond to the health and environmental challenges of our rapidly changing world, and will take four years to complete

Sotiris Vardoulakis from IOM said: "Over half of the world’s population currently live in cities and as the size of the global urban population is rapidly increasing we need to ensure that environmental protection and public health are fully integrated in the context of sustainable urban development. This new research partnership is going beyond traditional scientific approaches to build the inter-disciplinary evidence that local authorities need to effectively manage urbanisation"