With the support of Mobilière Cooperative, the University of Bern has been able to establish an endowed Professorship for Climate Impact and Public Health in the Built Environment. It is endowed with two million Swiss francs in total and is to investigate an important aspect of climate change which has so far only been insufficiently explored in Switzerland.
Switzerland is also experiencing the negative impacts of climate change on people’s well-being. Heat waves, for example, pose a serious threat to health. Elderly people, babies and chronically sick people in particular suffer from the physical effects of heat stress. As shown by a study led by the University of Bern, 623 people died due to the heat during the summer heatwave in 2022 in Switzerland. By comparison, in the same year, 270 people lost their lives in traffic accidents in Switzerland.
The latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC in 2022 projects that extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall and storms will occur more frequently and more intensely than so far anticipated. Such events will increasingly cause major damage and will require society to be much more resilient. These new challenges will rapidly increase as global warming progresses.
Assessing risks and identifying courses of action
The University of Bern is responding to these developments with its new endowed Professorship for Climate Impact and Public Health in the Built Environment. The professorship, which is planned for an initial period of five years, will examine the effects of climate change on people’s environment and well-being and comprehensively analyse their reciprocal interactions. For example, it is still the case that very little is known about the effects of climate change on mental health. The goals are to generate new knowledge, assess the risks and opportunities of climate change for human health and develop courses of action. The results of this research will then be used to derive new strategies for prevention and adaptation.
Ana Vicedo to be new Professor for Climate Impact and Public Health
The University of Bern’s Executive Board has appointed Ana Maria Vicedo Cabrera as Professor for Climate Impact and Public Health. Ana Vicedo completed her PhD at the University of Valencia in environmental pollution, toxicology and health. She additionally acquired a Master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Turin. Following this, she conducted research at various institutions including the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel and was assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Since 2019, Ana Vicedo has been Head of the Climate Change & Health group at the University of Bern. Through this research group, the University of Bern’s Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research have already been carrying out preliminary work in the new research field.
The insights gained there have attracted a lot of attention both within Switzerland and internationally. "Thanks to the interdisciplinary approach at the interface of preventive medicine and climate sciences, this research is unique in Switzerland," says Virginia Richter, Rector of the University of Bern. "We are delighted to be able to continue this successful work in more depth thanks to the Mobiliar Professorship for Climate Impact and Public Health."
Interdisciplinary research for urgently needed solutions
The creation of this new endowed professorship will consolidate the successful public-private partnership between Mobilière Cooperative and the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Bern. The professorship’s unrestricted freedom in how it conducts its teaching and research is enshrined in the contract between the two partners. This requires persons or employees appointed under such a contract to be free in their choice of research projects and methods, independent in their interpretation of research results, to have freedom of publication and to be able to collaborate with other institutions or companies.
Together with the Mobiliar Professorship for Climate Impact Research in the Alpine Region, established in 2010, and the affiliated Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks, the professorship forms an interdisciplinary focal point for investigating the impacts of climate change in Switzerland. "We are proud to be expanding our commitment in the socially highly relevant area of climate impact," explains Belinda Walther Weger, Head of Public Affairs & Sustainability at la Mobilière: "The promotion of research is an important component of our social commitment."
"Interdisciplinary research has a pivotal role in developing solutions for the major social challenges of our time," says Heinz Karrer, Chairman of the UniBE Foundation, founded in 2021. "We are therefore extremely delighted that Mobilière Cooperative is supporting the University of Bern in this important strategic focal point with its forward-looking commitment."
