Last update on the operational readiness of the EU BEACON One Health education infrastructure before finalization of all initial preparations
Building an open, efficient and sovereign network for collective teaching, research, implementation and governance, reaching full readiness
Reading time: approximately ten minutes. Video time: fifteen minutes.
Executive summary: the EU BEACON One Health education infrastructure is now nearly fully operational. This integrated open system brings together project management, participatory governance, encrypted communication and secure videoconferencing, enabling real-time cooperation across institutions and disciplines. It proves that digital sovereignty and scientific efficiency can be achieved at minimal cost through open-source architectures. The network is prepared to host large-scale educational, research and policy work, ensuring transparent and democratic coordination across the continent.
Please unsubscribe if not interested in receiving more such news. Next update will be on Friday 17th of October, or Sunday 19th night.
open this update with my deepest gratitude to all colleagues, partners and friends contributing to this collective mission, and most particularly to those who responded swiftly and generously to form part of my thesis tribunal this past Friday. Your readiness to act with integrity and commitment at such a decisive moment may well ensure, if all proceeds justly without any more abuse of power and institutional acts of violence, the continuity of my scientific and professional path after years devoted to education, open science and participatory governance.
I am profoundly thankful for your support, which embodies the very principles that sustain our common endeavour: intellectual honesty, transparency, and a shared sense of duty toward knowledge, justice and collective well-being. You, who work unashamedly and wholeheartedly for the common good, give meaning to this work. Thank you sincerely. Thank you all.
This update marks a decisive stage in the deployment of the EU BEACON One Health education infrastructure and in the consolidation of its open systems. The initiative is founded on the conviction that science and education must remain transparent, democratic and accountable to the society they serve. It stands in complete opposition to the wasteful, opaque and authoritarian practices that have too often dominated research management and public institutions. Every component of this infrastructure is designed to uphold the highest standards of open science, data transparency and participatory governance. Each euro received is to be allocated and accounted for in full, collectively validated and publicly traceable. Nothing is hidden, nothing wasted. This level of transparency is not rhetorical: it is the only legitimate basis for scientific trust and institutional credibility.
The need for one health education has become acute. Humanity faces a convergence of crises that defy borders and overwhelm systems: wars that devastate entire regions, mass displacements now exceeding one hundred ten million individuals, famine and undernutrition that leave more than forty-five million children across Africa and Asia chronically starving, ecosystems collapsing across continents, and accelerating extinction rates threatening life-supporting biodiversity. In Europe alone, one in ten citizens lives under combined social, environmental and psychological strain linked to systemic instability. These are not abstract statistics but lived realities. The normalisation of neglect, the indifference of those who could act yet choose to remain passive, and the persistence of institutional violence against the vulnerable together constitute one of the gravest moral failures of our age.
The scaffolding through education is one of the very few viable paths out of this global disarray. Our work is, thus, one of the most urgent scientific and civic tasks of our time. To achieve of to fail depends on our work, shared responsibility. The outcome lays before us, ready to be achieved. Building a coherent framework of knowledge that unites health, environment, ethics and governance is now essential for human survival. This is the central purpose of our action. EU BEACON leads this effort at continental scale, supported by the European Union through the COST framework, uniting educators, researchers and institutions in an open, coordinated and reproducible system of collaboration spanning more than forty countries.
I remain profoundly grateful for the institutional and collegial support that hopefully will allow my work to continue away from abuses of power, neglect and the many forms of psychological and physical violence that have destroyed too many lives and careers. Yet the persistence of such realities cannot be ignored. Those who fail in their duty, who protect impunity under the guise of care or neutrality, contribute to the perpetuation of harm. A lawful, ethical and protective society must defend its scholars and citizens alike from such injustice. Our collective work aims precisely at this transformation: to reinforce education and governance so that life, dignity and learning are preserved under conditions of fairness, accountability and transparency.
That is why we persevere. Thanks to your support, we can continue advancing. The need is immediate and the responsibility immense. As the systems surrounding us collapse under opacity and corruption, we rebuild openly and together. The EU BEACON One Health education network embodies this resolve, an infrastructure for a better order, founded on reason, inclusion and the shared pursuit of truth.
The ongoing work now demands concentration and uninterrupted focus. I will therefore remain offline throughout this week to complete several essential milestones. These include the finalization of literature reviews, a book chapter and a series of peer-reviewed articles; the consolidation of participatory and digital infrastructures; the refinement of stakeholder mapping across the COST region; and the advancement of the global abolition effort against shackling, known as pasung, through coordinated research, grant proposals and digital monitoring systems.
At the same time, I am finalizing an extensive and already highly advanced mapping of more than one thousand institutions, organizations and professional associations across all COST member and partner countries, forming the basis of our first continental outreach and media campaign. This effort consolidates a stakeholder structure connecting ministries, universities, research centres, professional bodies and civil-society organizations into a coherent and functional collaborative network. It targets media professionals, journalists, educators, policymakers, experts and other relevant actors, inviting them to join as allies and new members. The campaign presents EU BEACON as an open, ethical and scientifically rigorous model for education, research and governance across all COST countries and neighbouring regions. Its preparation requires precise verification of data, coordination with national and regional partners, final editing of audiovisual and written materials, multilingual translation and the configuration of automated yet transparent communication pipelines within our infrastructure.
Another central task this week is the technical finalization of the digital infrastructure. I must complete the configuration, testing and documentation of each system, including Leantime for project management, the Stanford Participatory Budgeting Platform for democratic governance, Matrix Element for secure and federated communication, BigBlueButton for academic collaboration and deliberation, and the auxiliary modules for translation, scheduling, mapping and media distribution. Achieving seamless integration and reliability across these services is essential for their official public release. Additional systems are being internally tested and are nearing completion.
Here are some of the key system links already made available, still being tested as well, each serving a distinct role in our infrastructure: the BigBlueButton instance at tele.health.int.eu.org provides the platform for live teaching, webinars, and interactive online sessions across working groups. The Element/Matrix service at element.health.int.eu.org supports secure, encrypted federation-based communication and collaboration among teams, with control over data and identities. The Leantime-based task management portal at tasks.health.int.eu.org offers structured project planning, tracking, milestone organisation and transparency for cross-institutional coordination.
In parallel, I am deploying the new central site of the action together with a much more extensive suite of software required to facilitate the work of all members and collaborators. The next update, expected on Friday night in both this publication and the EU BEACON platform, will mark its release. The integrated environment will include new media kit assets, collective scheduling tools, multilingual surveys, translation services, geographic information modules and collaborative programming environments. It will also feature an expanded collective deadline calendar including new funding calls and opportunities such as the upcoming Horizon round for consortia formation.
Please, make use of it all, regardless of membership. Join us, if are also working on achieving our goals, or wish to get involved. We require all expertise, all hands on desk, to achieve all objectives set, and go beyond, region by region:
https://health.int.eu.org/membership.html
All deployed software is fully open source, modular and federated under shared principles of transparency, autonomy and scientific sovereignty. Strict adherence to open science standards is not only an ethical requirement but a methodological necessity. Open systems prevent dependency on opaque proprietary infrastructures, guarantee data reproducibility and ensure long-term sustainability. They secure that every scientific, educational and technical contribution remains verifiable, improvable and publicly accountable. This architecture enables the network to function with complete independence while fostering collaboration grounded in trust, clarity and shared ownership.
In addition, my ongoing research on the abolition of shackling continues to advance. It encompasses the design of digital monitoring and wearable-based early-warning systems, the development of rehabilitation frameworks, and the consolidation of partnerships with institutions and civil organizations in Indonesia, Spain and beyond. This is complex, multidisciplinary work demanding both analytical precision and profound ethical responsibility.
For all these reasons, I must remain completely offline throughout the week, away from any distraction, to complete these tasks and components with the depth and concentration they require. The completion of this stage will secure the stability and readiness of our shared infrastructure, enabling the network to operate as intended for the collective benefit of all.
I thank you all for your understanding and for respecting this period of necessary seclusion. Your continued collaboration and trust make this endeavour possible. May each of you continue your valuable contributions with focus, serenity and determination as we move forward together, in safety and in full health, away from harm and the hateful indifference that destroys.