Invitation to join in our work on one health education: on research, pedagogy and actionable steps to planetary well-being

Three strategic updates from the EU BEACON One Health Education network: we invite you to two new Horizon consortia, on brain health and service learning, and our official action launch meeting

Reading time: about ten minutes.

Brief summary: this post provides a structured update on three key components of the EU BEACON One Health Education and Technology network ongoing work:

1. Brain Health Horizon Europe proposal, a multi-site longitudinal study on the impact of personalized nutrition on children’s cognitive performance, led by Dr Anupoma P. Haque. Open to expert and institutional new consortium members.

2. Service Learning Horizon Europe proposal, a transdisciplinary project on service learning as a systemic educational framework for civic health and ecological awareness, coordinated by Professor Janaina Minelli De Oliveira Ramos. Consortium expansion also ongoing, with deadline 16th of September.

3. EU BEACON launch meeting, this September, an official presentation of the action's roadmap, media engagement, and member coordination ahead of the early October inauguration, following an August of global network expansion.

1 - Brain Health Horizon Europe proposal

I am currently coordinating a new Horizon Europe call proposal, with a thematic focus on brain health, under the framework of sustainable development, child protection, and cognitive optimization through integrated health and education interventions. The proposal is led by Dr Anupoma P. Haque, medical doctor and principal investigator with hundreds of large scale studies under her belt, and is under development within the scientific and operational ecosystem of the action she also co-leads, our EU BEACON One Health Education COST Action CA24106. This proposal aims to establish a large-scale, multi-site, longitudinal case-control study focused on optimizing and personalizing nutritional intake in children, with measurable impact on cognitive performance, neurodevelopment, academic functioning, and broader psychosocial integration. We will teach the children how to their body and mind works, and help them become more and more healthy.

The study will monitor outcomes at multiple levels: medical and neuropsychological assessments, academic performance as reflected in regular school examinations, and broader societal markers of inclusion, interaction and functional capacity. The methodology integrates medical monitoring with ecological, educational and sociocultural variables, recognizing that nutrition is not an isolated biomedical input but a deeply embedded human practice. Eating patterns, nutrients intake, needed supplements to each child health and other specific requirements, restful times, physical activity, and adequate digestion-relaxation will be explicitly measured and adjusted for, ensuring the intervention respects the full complexity of children’s socioeconomic and biocultural developmental environments. The approach draws from successful empirical models and methods, including the blue zone longevity regions and other globally documented clusters of extraordinarily healthy long lifespan, to design scalable, replicable, and culturally coherent interventions.

Please, join following this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fq4FoRGbEdBCmE0ob11rL1IwNgXrhSBXyMATy7xPh1g/edit?usp=sharing

I am honored to share the confirmed consortia leaders:

• Artem Artyukhov, Senior Researcher, Research Institute of Trade and Sustainable Business, Bratislava University of Economics and Business, Slovakia

• Tetiana Vasylieva, Research Fellow, Department of Investment and Finance, Faculty of Business Administration, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany

• Serhiy Lyeonov, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Silesian University of Technology, Poland

Be welcomed as new consortium member. We are now looking for experts in these fields: schools to engange, public health institutions, governamental key actors, and other relevant stakeholders in child development. Nutrition, neuropsychology, education policy, and community-based intervention design are also very strongly encouraged to join us. We will convene a dedicated meeting in the coming days to refine the proposal and align contributions. Please contribute your name, institutional affiliation, and role or expertise area to be integrated as co-applicants or collaborative partners using the link above. This is an opportunity to produce actionable evidence on the long-term benefits of nutritional interventions for cognitive health and social flourishing, grounded in One Health principles and capable of informing both policy and practice across Europe and beyond.

2 - Service Learning Horizon Europe proposal

A second Horizon Europe call proposal underway, on service learning as a transformative pedagogical approach, combining educational innovation, ecological awareness, and social responsibility through real-world engagement. The project is coordinated by Professor Janaina Minelli De Oliveira Ramos, principal investigator and expert in critical pedagogy, community-based education, and participatory research methodologies. This proposal positions service learning as a foundational axis for embedding One Health principles within educational systems, cultivating learners' capacity to engage ethically and effectively with the interdependencies between human, animal and environmental health.

This transdisciplinary proposal will articulate service learning not merely as an add-on to formal curricula, but as a systemic, iterative and co-designed framework capable of strengthening democratic competence, ecological literacy, and health equity across all educational levels. It will map and deploy case studies and field interventions across partner institutions, combining open science protocols, qualitative and quantitative monitoring, and participatory action research. Particular emphasis will be placed on structural alignment between academic institutions and their surrounding communities, enabling mutual benefit, long-term collaboration, and capacity building. The model will respond to the demand for socially engaged universities and schools that prepare students not only for employment, but for meaningful and dignified participation in public life and planetary regeneration.

The consortium is currently also expanding and welcomes expressions of interest from scholars, educators, institutions, and community actors committed to pedagogical transformation, civic health, and planetary sustainability. All those wishing to join are invited to submit their names, institutional affiliations, and proposed areas of contribution for inclusion as co-applicants or collaborators. We seek to ensure equitable geographical representation, disciplinary diversity, and deep contextual understanding of the challenges and opportunities linked to service learning in a global One Health framework.

Please, join in following this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/103VUHiO2AoU8-TMzI4Gvw4hBUnGTRAmbEFnPoVXwuz4/edit?usp=sharing

3 - EU BEACON action launch meeting

As founder and current communications, dissemination and exploitation officer of the EU COST Action CA24106 BEACON One Health Education and Technology, I am honored to announce a formal September launch meeting to be held prior to the official inauguration later in October. This meeting will convene members of the network, institutional and individual collaborators, and representatives from media outlets at all levels. I am thrilled to share we are preparing a major media campaign. I encourage all members willing to join in the preparations. Please comment or email me to coordinate as part of the action communications team. You are all welcome.

The aim of this online event is twofold: to present the action to local, national and international press and to provide current and prospective members with an updated and structured overview of the scientific, operational and strategic roadmap guiding the Action’s implementation. The session was first announced two days ago by professor María Jesús Lirola, action chair, during our current Horizon call proposals meeting. EU BEACON is conceived as a science-driven and globally connected project to integrate One Health principles across educational systems. Its scope is not limited to knowledge production but extends to evidence-based transformation of the enabling conditions for health, dignity and cooperation.

This August will mark the culmination of an expansion process designed to guarantee complete territorial inclusion across the EU COST Action area while simultaneously extending the global scope of the network. The effort aims to consolidate a structurally coherent and scientifically aligned coalition composed of thousands of individual experts and institutional members operating at the intersection of education, health, technology and governance. The magnitude and heterogeneity of this network are not incidental but foundational, enabling the operationalisation of transdisciplinary health governance mechanisms, the deployment of open science infrastructures, and the implementation of restorative and rights-based education models. Such frameworks are indispensable to address the interlinked crises of planetary degradation, institutional inequity and knowledge exclusion. The Action adopts a methodological stance grounded in scientific rigor, the principles of open and reproducible research, juridical coherence and uncompromising ethical responsibility in both internal conduct and external engagement.

The forthcoming launch online event will mark a critical juncture in the consolidation of the action’s work plan, deliverables and collaborative procedures. It will also be the occasion to publicly present it to the media and to articulate the role of the network in future European and international research infrastructures. Interested journalists, academic and governmental institutions, civil society actors and all individuals engaged in health justice, open education, and global transformation are invited to take part and follow the announcements and materials to be shared via https://health.int.eu.org. The registration page and detailed agenda will be made available shortly, in a new official post.