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Research Ideas and Outcomes :
Policy Brief
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Christos Arvanitidis‡, Olga Ameixa§, Alberto Basset|,¶,#, Eva Chatzinikolaou¤, Claudia Coman«, Berta Companys», Francesco De Leo˄, Klaas Deneudt˅, Federico Drago¦, John Erikssonˀ, Tiziana Ferrariˁ, Teodor Georgiev₵, Giovanni Giulianoℓ, Stefan Gruber₰, Jens K Habermann₱, Katharina F Heil₳, Tim Hubbard₳, Cristina Huertas Olivares₴, Georgios Kotoulas₣, Dimitris Koureas₮, Natalia Manola₦, Vanessa Marrocco₭, Nicolas Pade₲, Ana Portugal Melo‽, Antonello Provenzale₩, Fotis E Psomopoulos₸, Niels Raes‡‡,§§, Susie Robinson||, Patrick Ruch¶¶, Dick Schaap##, Adrian Stanica¤¤, Tassos Stavropoulos₦, Heliana Teixeira««, Peter van Tienderen»», Costas Tsigenopoulos˄˄, Robert M Waterhouse˅˅, Giuseppe Apreaℓ, Michel Boër¦¦, Ana Casinoˀˀ, Laurent Delauneyˁˁ, Jonathan Ewbank₵₵, Ana Lillebøℓℓ, Michael Mirtl₰₰, Jana Pavlic-Zupanc₱, Lyubomir Penev₱₱, Jaume Piera», Paraskevi Pitta₳₳, Ingrid Puillat₴₴, David Richter₰, Diana Stepanyan₵₵, Anton Ussi₣₣, Jan Marcin Węsławski₮₮, Gabriela Zuquim₦₦|
Corresponding author: Christos Arvanitidis (ceo@lifewatch.eu)
Received: 26 Oct 2025 | Published: 04 Nov 2025
© 2025 Christos Arvanitidis, Olga Ameixa, Alberto Basset, Eva Chatzinikolaou, Claudia Coman, Berta Companys, Francesco De Leo, Klaas Deneudt, Federico Drago, John Eriksson, Tiziana Ferrari, Teodor Georgiev, Giovanni Giuliano, Stefan Gruber, Jens Habermann, Katharina Heil, Tim Hubbard, Cristina Huertas Olivares, Georgios Kotoulas, Dimitris Koureas, Natalia Manola, Vanessa Marrocco, Nicolas Pade, Ana Portugal Melo, Antonello Provenzale, Fotis Psomopoulos, Niels Raes, Susie Robinson, Patrick Ruch, Dick Schaap, Adrian Stanica, Tassos Stavropoulos, Heliana Teixeira, Peter van Tienderen, Costas Tsigenopoulos, Robert Waterhouse, Giuseppe Aprea, Michel Boër, Ana Casino, Laurent Delauney, Jonathan Ewbank, Ana Lillebø, Michael Mirtl, Jana Pavlic-Zupanc, Lyubomir Penev, Jaume Piera, Paraskevi Pitta, Ingrid Puillat, David Richter, Diana Stepanyan, Anton Ussi, Jan Węsławski, Gabriela Zuquim
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Arvanitidis C, Ameixa O, Basset A, Chatzinikolaou E, Coman C, Companys B, De Leo F, Deneudt K, Drago F, Eriksson J, Ferrari T, Georgiev T, Giuliano G, Gruber S, Habermann J, Heil K, Hubbard T, Huertas Olivares C, Kotoulas G, Koureas D, Manola N, Marrocco V, Pade N, Portugal Melo A, Provenzale A, Psomopoulos F, Raes N, Robinson S, Ruch P, Schaap D, Stanica A, Stavropoulos T, Teixeira H, van Tienderen P, Tsigenopoulos C, Waterhouse R, Aprea G, Boër M, Casino A, Delauney L, Ewbank J, Lillebø A, Mirtl M, Pavlic-Zupanc J, Penev L, Piera J, Pitta P, Puillat I, Richter D, Stepanyan D, Ussi A, Węsławski J, Zuquim G (2025) The Crete Declaration: Uniting Science for One Health. Research Ideas and Outcomes 11: e176120. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.11.e176120
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Abstract
The interdependence of human, animal, plant and ecosystem health necessitates systemic, cross-domain collaboration to address global challenges, such as emerging diseases, climate change and biodiversity severe change. Through the Crete Declaration, Europe’s (e-)infrastructures, organisations and projects that focus on the functioning of our biosphere commit to jointly advancing the One Health approach. In doing so, the signatories aim to strengthen Europe’s resilience and leadership through the sharing of data and expertise, the development of innovative solutions and the promotion of evidence-based policies.
Keywords
One Health, systemic approach, Research (e-)Infrastructures, organisations and collaborative projects, open innovation, policy support
Preamble
We, the undersigned, representing Europe’s large-scale Research (e-)Infrastructures, organisations and collaborative projects dedicated to understanding the living component of Biosphere, commit to joining forces to advance the One Health approach, recognising the intimate and inseparable link between the health of people, animals and plants and how they interact within ecosystems.
The world faces urgent, interconnected challenges — emerging diseases, epidemics and antimicrobial resistance; food safety and sustainable production; water scarcity, environmental contamination and severe change in biodiversity — all intensified by the widespread impact of climate change. These global threats demand a fundamental shift towards systemic, integrated solutions. Several major EU initiatives already address parts of these challenges, including the partnerships for pandemic preparedness (Be Ready Now), animal health and welfare (EUPAHW) and One Health Antimicrobial Resistance (EUP OHAMR).
One Health calls for a “whole of society” approach to health hazards and a systemic change of perspective in the management of risks with a long-term strategic vision for action. Research Infrastructures in Europe are in a pivotal position to provide solutions that are firmly grounded in robust science and evidence-based insights into the functioning of our living environment. Through collaboration and co-creation with users and stakeholders, research actors provide unified data and service integration and firmly commit to open science as a driver for scientific and social innovation.
Our Shared Ambition
- Promote multidisciplinary and cross-domain research to address the most urgent One Health challenges;
- Unite our complementary strengths to provide information for EU and national policies with robust scientific evidence, embedding preparedness by design scientific knowledge into policies and practice;
- Support and advance open innovation through shared resources that enable technological and societal responses to human-induced and natural stressors, thus strengthening Europe's resilience and global leadership;
- Accelerate the uptake of emerging methods, including observational, experimental and computational technologies, with a special focus on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in One Health applications.
Our Commitment
We hereby commit to:
- Strengthen Strategic Collaboration. Invest in structured and sustained collaboration on One Health challenges and jointly engage with stakeholders and national and European funding agencies to prioritise actions and work on the realisation of common goals;
- Advance Data Integration and FAIR Principles for Open Science. Ensure equitable access to relevant data resources, software, workflows, standards and protocols across domains (both technological and socio-economic);
- Support Open Innovation. Establish trusted, inclusive platform for stakeholder engagement, accelerating innovation across public and private sectors in critical areas such as species and ecosystems conservation, sustainable food systems, antimicrobial resistance and water security;
- Inform Policy and Public. Provide integrated scientific knowledge to provide information for effective, evidence-based policy-making and engage citizens. Policies anchored in reliable data are robust and, when rooted in societal participation, they will become more feasible, impactful and widely adopted.
Next Steps
This Declaration was developed during a special assembly held in Crete in June 2025, hosted by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. We invite all European stakeholders committed to One Health, including policy-makers, Science Clusters and the private sector, to endorse this Declaration and join efforts towards a federated and coordinated approach to One Health research and innovation in Europe.