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Public Health, Health Services Research and HTA

EU Horizon Europe CATALYSE

 

The CATALYSE (Climate Action To Advance HeaLthY Societies in Europe) project aims to provide new knowledge, data, and tools on: 1) the relationships between changes in environmental hazards caused by climate change, ecosystems, and human health; 2) the health co-benefits of climate action; 3) the role of health evidence in decision making; and 4) the societal implications of climate change for health systems.

This will be achieved through five specific objectives:

  1. to develop an integrated indicator framework and repository to track the status of health-relevant outcomes of climate actions
  2. to quantify the health co-benefits and full social and environmental costs and benefits resulting from mitigation measures outside of the health sector
  3. to develop innovative surveillance and forecasting tools that facilitate effective response to environmental health hazards (e.g. heat stress, allergenic pollen) caused by climate change and the design, monitoring and evaluation of interventions to mitigate climate change
  4. to investigate how stakeholders engage with evidence regarding the health impacts of climate change, and to develop strategies and tools to facilitate engagement
  5. to provide evidence and training on the most effective strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation for health systems, with specific focus on vulnerable populations including those occupationally exposed to hazards induced by climate change.

The EU Horizon Europe project CATALYSE will be conducted by a consortium of 21 organizations from 12 countries and is led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Barcelona, Spain.

UMIT TIROL is involved in several Work Packages (WP) and has the Lead in two WP Tasks of the WP 5 “Adaptation and Mitigation in Health Systems. The first WP Task led by UMIT TIROL is on the “Evaluation of Economic Implications of Adaptation in the Health Sector” including the evaluation of cost-effectiveness of selected climate change adaptation strategies to protect workers from heat related illness. These results will provide evidence to inform decision makers responsible for budgetary and resource deployment (e.g., health ministries, sickness funds, private sector). The second WP Task led by UMIT TIROL is the development of “Training Materials Tailored for Healthcare and Health System Professionals” to support climate change adaptation and mitigation.

CATALYSE is a Horizon Research and Innovation Action and has received funding from the EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program under the Grant Agreement number: : 101057131.

Link: https://catalysehorizon.eu/

Total Project Budget: 10.3 Mio. EUR, UMIT TIROL share: 680,000 EUR

Duration: 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2027

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28 September 2026

UMIT TIROL Early-Career Researcher Receives Award for Research on the Health Effects of Heat

Lennart Koch, an early-career researcher at the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment at UMIT TIROL, was awarded the Young ÖGPH Award (second place) at the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Public Health Association (ÖGPH). The award recognized a systematic literature review on the association between heat and hospitalizations due to cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular diseases.

The award-winning study (“A Systematic Review on the Association between Heat Exposure and Hospitalizations with Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Cerebrovascular Diseases in Warm Temperate Climates Representative for Austria”) was conducted as part of Koch’s doctoral thesis in collaboration with the Climate and Health Competence Centre of the Austrian National Public Health Institute and within the EU-funded CATALYSE project (Climate Action to Advance Healthy Societies in Europe). The project is being carried out at UMIT TIROL under the supervision of Associate Professor Gaby Sroczynski from the Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment (IPH). The international CATALYSE partners ISGlobal in Spain and ASL ROMA 1 in Italy, also contributed to the study.

The study examined the existing scientific evidence for warm temperate climate zones relevant to west and central Europe. The findings are intended to contribute to a better understanding of the health effects of heat and to provide a foundation for investigating suitable measures in Europe. The results show that increasing heat is associated not only with a rise in the number of deaths, but probably also with an increase in acute hospital admissions due to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory diseases. Children and older people also appear to be particularly vulnerable to such hospital admissions.

“I am very pleased to receive this award. As with almost all scientific studies, but particularly systematic reviews, it is above all an award for the entire team, which provided support and contributed at every stage,” says Lennart Koch. At the same time, the award highlights the importance of continuing to address the health effects of climate change.

Associate Professor Gaby Sroczynski views the award as recognition of the research achievement and, at the same time, as a signal of the importance of evidence-based decision sciences in the field of climate and health. Professor Uwe Siebert, Head of the IPH at UMIT TIROL Private University, emphasizes the importance of the newly established research focus “Climate Change and Health”: “I am particularly pleased that this enables us to offer early-career researchers excellent opportunities to contribute to major European research consortia and to advance their own ideas.”

The award underlines the growing importance of the research field “Health and Climate Change” at UMIT TIROL and reflects the national recognition of this development.

Early-career researcher Lennart Koch, MPH (right), from the IPH at UMIT TIROL, is delighted to receive the Early-Career Research Award of the Austrian Public Health Association (ÖGPH), which was presented to him by Gilles Bernard (left), Co-Chair of YOUNG ÖGPH.

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10-11 February 2026

4th Annual CATALYSE Consortium Meeting in Porto

Two members of the UMIT TIROL Team attended the 4th Annual CATALYSE Consortium Meeting in Porto to review progress, strengthen collaboration, and align on next steps to maximize both scientific output and societal impact. The meeting highlighted strong coordination across work packages and a shared commitment to high-quality research and effective dissemination.

Key highlights included:

  • Each work package presented two scientific publications in the plenary session, followed by targeted feedback and breakout sessions to support paper development and coordination.
  • Dissemination and stakeholder engagement discussions, focusing on strategies to increase societal impact and improve outreach activities across the project.
  • Advancement of the Visuality platform, including plenary discussions on the Knowledge Hub and dedicated breakout sessions addressing content development and backend challenges.

Overall, the meeting reinforced the project’s collaborative spirit and provided clear direction for strengthening scientific excellence while enhancing engagement with stakeholders beyond the research community.

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20-21 February 2025

3rd Annual CATALYSE Consortium Meeting in Rome

Three members of the UMIT TIROL Team attended the 3rd Annual CATALYSE Consortium Meeting in Rome, where partners gathered to review the project’s progress and share preliminary results. The event was marked by insightful discussions, a strong collaborative spirit, and a shared determination to tackle the intertwined challenges of climate change and health. Some of the highlights included:

  • Work Package updates, followed by in-depth working sessions to refine next steps.
  • Early Career Researcher session, featuring lightning talks and poster sessions, showcasing the work of early career researchers within the project.
  • Climate-Health Cluster update, bringing together six European projects, including CATALYSE, that bridge the environmental and health research communities. This initiative fosters collaboration to deepen the understanding of how climate change impacts health and to address related emerging threats.

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14 April 2025

Exploring the Impact of Extreme Heat on Health: Focus on Migrant Agricultural Workers in the Context of a Changing Climate

Globally, an estimated 1 in 4 adults work outdoors, facing increasing risks from occupational heat stress. Environmental factors including high temperatures, humidity, direct sun exposure, and physically demanding tasks amplify these risks. In Europe, between 800,000 and 1 million seasonal outdoor workers, primarily in agriculture, are employed each year— a population group which is particularly at risk.

Through the CATALYSE project, we are among other things investigating how extreme heat affects the health of socially marginalized groups, with a focus on migrant agricultural workers who might face more barriers to accessing and utilizing health care services.

Our fieldwork spans three countries - Italy, Spain, and Austria – with the following objectives:

  • Assess migrant agricultural workers’ heat exposure.
  • Explore their risk perceptions.
  • Identify ways to adapt health services to better meet their needs.

The insights gained will contribute to the co-creation of health system strategies designed to:

  • Bridge gaps between heat-related risks and workers' awareness of these risks.
  • Address unmet healthcare needs resulting from heat stress.

These strategies aim to strengthen health system adaptation efforts and to protect vulnerable populations from the growing impacts of heat stress in the context of climate change.

For a detailed overview of this field study, watch the projects video: Access here

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17 October 2023

Fourth Consortium Meeting – CATALYSE Consortium members met in Barcelona

The fourth CATALYSE consortium meeting took place in presence on October 16th and 17th, 2023, in Barcelona. With about 50 members of the CATALYSE consortium in attendance, the meeting served as a central gathering to assess the progress made in the first year of the project. Three members of the UMIT TIROL Team in CATALYSE attended this meeting in-person.

This meeting provided a platform for fruitful exchanges, collaborative discussions, and shared insights from our diverse network of partners and stakeholders. Key topics addressed during the meeting included:

  • Reviewing the accomplishments and milestones achieved during the first year of the CATALYSE project.
  • Identifying challenges and opportunities for advancing climate action and promoting health in European communities.
  • Formulating strategies to enhance collaboration and synergy among consortium members to maximize the impact of our collective effort

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